36 | FRONTDOORS MAGAZINE

Volunteer gets a new “view” of life BY JUDY PEARSON The Beat of a Heart, the Blink of an Eye W ith a wife he adored, a healthy son and daughter, an exhilarating career in banking, and the beautiful Pacific Ocean just a short drive from his Portland home, Chris Rudolph had the perfect life. During the winter of 1991, Rudolph got a chest cold. He was an active, healthy guy and figured the cold would go away. But it didn’t. He sought advice from his physician, who didn’t like what he heard in Rudolph’s chest and sent him to a cardiologist. That doctor sent him immediately to the hospital, where Rudolph was admitted for testing. A 2ND ACT The news the next morning wasn’t good. A healthy heart is about the size of a fist; Rudolph’s was the size of a football. His diagnosis was idiopathic (spontaneous from an unknown cause) cardiomyopathy. Although he would be given a variety of drugs, his long-term survival was unlikely without a heart transplant. When the symptoms became too severe, Rudolph went on the transplant list and received a new heart in October 1996. “I had always been a positive person,” Rudolph said. “On transplant day, I told my team, ‘You do the surgery, I’ll A 2ND ACT FRONTDOORS MAGAZINE | 37