It started with a dry cough. Jaime Estrada didn't really think any of it. It was 2003 and he was busy providing for his wife Minnie and daughters Jessica and Maryjo, working in a fish and chip shop in Toowoomba.
Unbeknownst to him, the cough wasn't a passing virus, it was a symptom of something more serious.
"After a month of coughing, I found that my face and legs were swollen; so, I finally listened to my wife and went to the doctor," he shares, "I found out I had pericarditis".
He shares that the doctors informed him that a virus had infected his heart, causing it to become enlarged. The enlargement then damaged the muscles of his heart.
"I was a healthy person before," he told SBS Filipino.
However, when his condition worsened, he felt his whole body slowing down. Walking required exertion. He had to catch his breath every time he went up and down the stairs. His wife and daughters noticed that he would always be on the brink of falling asleep during conversations. He became tired easily, and work needed to be put on hold as it would only worsen an already dire situation.
"I was a healthy person before." Source: Jaime Estrada
However, self-proclaimed optimist Mr Estrada says that he felt that he could live with the condition then, sharing, "I could still tolerate it. I was fighting it."
His fight brought their family to Sydney in 2008 where Mr Estrada sought help from a heart specialist from St. Vincent's Hospital.
Although he was given medication to alleviate his symptoms, there was no cure for his condition. His heart was too badly damaged. It would never function normally again. Mr Estrada's doctor told him that the only way for him to recover was to get a new heart.
It would be four long years before Mr Estrada received that heart, but the wait wasn't without its unmet promises.
"In 2011, they told me that they had a heart for me. They said come to the hospital, but then they found out that the first heart offered to me was infectious so they couldn’t do a transplant on me that day."
The news would have been devastating to anyone else, but Mr Estrada remained optimistic. While his doctor apologised profusely, he told him that he had faith that another heart will come.
And three months later, it did.
"They called me up in the morning saying come over, there’s another match for you," Mr Estrada said.
The recovery after the transplant was long and difficult for Mr Estrada. Whenever he had to cough or sneeze, he had to press a pillow or towel hard against his chest so that the wires holding his skin together wouldn't split open.
He recalls waking up one morning and suddenly getting an urge to sneeze, and as he did, his stitches popped open. Consequently, Mr Estrada had to undergo another operation, have all the wires taken out and replaced with glue. The ordeal led to a 41-day stay in the hospital.
Recovery was long for Mr Estrada. Source: Jaime Estrada
But Mr Estrada sets aside all the things he endured in the past because now he has the present.
"I treat life now as if it’s only for today," he muses, "I try not to worry about tomorrow."
Mr Estrada now has today with his family. Source: Jaime Estrada
While he no longer worries about an uncertain future, he will forever be grateful to the family that allowed him to live his life today.
"I write to my donor’s family every year just to tell them that I’m okay. I always tell them that no matter how many years it has been, I am always grateful to them, that I keep them in my prayers."
Mr Estrada has never met his donor's family, but shares that he treasures the letter written by his donor's mother wherein she said her son "was outgoing, positive and had a good heart".
"I wrote back, thank you for the heart of your son," he shares, "We're very similar."
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Life Giving stories 2018
