Naoshia Butler received a heart transplant on January 30, 2017. Butler’s diagnosis of congestive heart failure wasn’t known until after giving birth to her son. She woke up one night and recognized instantly that something was wrong. that’s when she asked her son’s father to take her to the ER.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I know something is not right, and I need to go to the hospital,” Butler said.

The ER nurse told her that she had a heart attack, her heart was only functioning at 15%, and she needed a heart transplant.

“Okay, let me call my momma to let her know that I’m not coming home today. I’m so goofy that I didn’t take it seriously, not knowing that I would be in the hospital for nine months.” Butler said once getting the news from the doctor.

During the time in the hospital, Butler remembers how she missed out a lot with her newborn due to her illness and being in the hospital.

“The average mom gets to hold their baby… I didn’t get to do any of that. I miss that whole phase because I was sick.”

Being such a strong believer in God and knowing that He had her back, Butler didn’t allow the status of her health to get her down.

“While I was in the hospital, I went back to school. I did my studies on my laptop and turned in my homework.”

Still to this day, Butler says it takes time to adjust to having the transplant, and she sometimes walks slowly but is grateful for the opportunity to live again because, without the gracious heart donor, she could have been still sick or worse, passed on.

According to Mid-South Transplant Foundation, 13,000 adults and children are awaiting organ transplants in the U.S. right now, and more than 4,000 of those are in the Mid-South.