Retired detective Plano, survivor of 19 heart attacks, tells transplant story

PLANO, Texas – Retired Police Detective Plano is alive with a new heart. He was in desperate need of a transplant after 19 heart attacks.

FOX 4 first shared the story of Kevin Lopez last spring while he was waiting for a heart transplant.

Now with a new heart, he is ready to move forward. But first he managed to say goodbye to the old.

The failed organ was wrapped and lying on a table at Baylor Scott & White Heart and Vascular Hospital in Dallas when it went in for a checkup.

“Do you know what this is?” Dr. William Roberts, the hospital’s chief executive, asked him.

“I believe this is my heart, don’t you?” Lopez replied.

This heart suffered 19 heart attacks and forced Lopez to retire early from the Plano Police Department.

“So many things went through with him. He survived,” he said.

The defibrillator kept him alive by delivering an electric shock each time Lopez’s heart stopped.

But after months on the waiting list, Lopez now has someone’s heart inside of him.

“At first it was hard to recover, there were problems with opening wounds and infection. I contracted COVID in the hospital,” he said.

The recovery process was physically and emotionally challenging.

“There is a bit of guilt that someone had to pass for me to get my heart. Many thanks, so many questions. It’s a surreal feeling,” he said.

Holding your old heart in your hands is part of that healing.

“It’s like thanking him and saying goodbye properly,” said Nicole Lopez, his daughter. “I was 10 when he had his first heart attack. I am now 28 soon. I am forever grateful to this heart.”

The transplant gives Lopez more time with his children, daughter Nicole and 13-year-old son Lucas.

“This is something I didn’t think I would have,” he said. “I didn’t plan it because of the way things were going. I planned death more than life.”

But with a new heart comes a new beginning.

“Now it’s beautiful. I see the future again,” he said.

The Lopez family is documenting their journey online and is holding a fundraiser to help cover medical expenses. For more information, visit helphopelive.org/campaign/19830/.