Alaska Teen is Climbing to New Heights After Heart Transplant

This Valentine’s Day, we want to thank our friends and colleagues at the Seattle Children’s Heart Center. Thank you for all that you do!

Just two days before he got sick, Adrian Peterson was practicing martial arts – a typical activity for the active 17-year-old who regularly biked, climbed and hiked. But that all changed in October 2018, when Adrian woke up feeling congested and nauseous.

“That was the only forewarning I got for what was to come,” Adrian said.

At first, doctors in Fairbanks diagnosed Adrian with the flu. However, about two weeks later, doctors at an urgent care center discovered Adrian had something more. He was sent to an emergency room with acute heart failure.

“My next memory was waking up while being toted over to an ambulance. I was told that we had to fly to Seattle Children’s,” Adrian said. “I fell asleep on the flight, and the next thing I knew I was in Seattle with an IV line in my neck.”

Adrian was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, which is when the heart is severely weakened and it becomes enlarged.

“It was completely unexpected,” Adrian said. “All I knew was that I wanted to be healthy again.”

You can read the rest of Adrian’s story on Seattle Children’s On the Pulse blog HERE.