Traditionally the New Year is a time of beginnings.

Thomas Ross, 35, of Kunkletown was given the greatest gift in the form of a new heart at the end of 2015, and he sees 2016 as the beginning of his new life.“I had a premonition as a child that I would not live past 35,” said Ross. “I brought it up for years. When I turned 35 last January, I was kidding my mother about it.”Something was wrongIn June, Ross stopped joking about it. That’s when he began to be short of breath frequently and was fatigued easily at work.Working in a restaurant supply company, Ross would move large refrigerators daily, but one day he fell while moving a small, one-door refrigerator and it pinned him down.He knew something was wrong.“I had been seeing my doctor almost every weekend,” he said. “First they thought it was a virus or something, but I kept feeling worse.”By the end of the summer Ross did not feel he could work anymore and gave his notice, but his employer in New Jersey insisted on keeping him on the company health plan and keeping his job open for him.Still convinced it was his lungs, Ross sought out a pulmonary specialist who ran some tests and determined his heart was the problem and referred Ross to a cardiologist.The cardiologist, Rhondalyn C. Ford-McLean, spent more than an hour with Ross when she first met him. She ran tests, ordered more tests and concluded that the young man was suffering from cardiomyopathy.A normal heart works at a 50 percent ejection fraction. His heart was operating at 10 percent.“The blood was pooling and causing blood clots,” his mother Sandra Ross said.The family first heard the words “heart transplant” from Ford-McLean in September.After having a defibrillator installed, Ross continued to decline.“We went home and I immediately went to work looking for where the best place to go would be,” said Sandra Ross.The decline“I looked at Pennsylvania and New Jersey. When I saw that the University of Pennsylvania hospital had performed over 1,000 heart transplants I thought that I had found the right place. But in the meantime, Tom was getting worse, and when we called the cardiologist she told us to bring him right in,” Sandra said.In early December, Ross was admitted to University of Pennsylvania for tests to see if he was a candidate for a heart transplant. Within hours, his information was put into the United Network for Organ Sharing computer system run by Gift of Life.The computer looks for a match based on blood type and the weight of the potential recipient. The transplant team also ranks the patient in terms of severity of need.The levels of need for heart transplant patients is 1A, 1B, and Status 2. 1A is the most critical need.Ross was listed on the registry as 1A.“We came home that night relieved some that we knew he was on the list,” said Sandra Ross. “A few hours later we got the call that they had a match and that they were going to be prepping Tom for surgery. We were in shock.”The Rosses made it back to the hospital several hours before the surgery, but Thomas was already in pre-op.“I had the most fantastic nurses, the staff was incredible,” Thomas Ross said. “But this wonderful nurse Vicki comes into my room and she looks at me, really emotional and says, ‘I have so wanted to be able to do this’ and she tells me that it is her first time telling a patient that they have a match. We were both crying.”Christmas miracleHe received his heart transplant within 16 hours, which is probably one of the reasons the transplant staff at UPenn refer to him as their Christmas miracle.Ross returned home from the hospital on Christmas Eve and was able to spend the holidays with his family. At his most recent checkup Ross’s ejection fraction was at 65 percent, better than average.“I really didn’t know how bad I looked before the surgery until my nephew showed me a picture he took before I went to the hospital. I couldn’t look at it.”Sandra Ross is grateful that her son’s premonition proved wrong. But Ross really doesn’t see it that way.“My heart stopped and I was on life support during my 35th year. I died,” he said. “But in two weeks I am going to be 36 and this, this is my new life.”Ross plans to spread the word about organ donation. “I may not be able to be a donor because of my health, but I can try to get the word out there. You know, ‘Hi, nice to meet you, do you know if it weren’t for a donor we would never have had the chance to meet?’ ”He has to be careful for now. He watches what he eats, he checks his blood sugar and his weight regularly and takes precautions due to his suppressed immune system. He is also taking anti-rejection medications and plans to return to work in the sales department.“When I was in the hospital I had a huge smile on my face just waiting to see my cardiologist,” said Ross. “When I saw her I was like, ‘This is for you.’ She saved me.” About gift of lifeAs many as 5,900 people in our region are waiting for some form of organ or tissue donation at any time, according to Howard Nathan, president and CEO of Gift of Life.Of that number at least 110 are waiting for heart transplants. Nationally the numbers are 122,000 awaiting transplants, with 3,000 waiting for hearts.Gift of Life, started in 1974, coordinates organ and tissue donations for all 129 hospitals in the region. In 1994, the last piece of legislation signed into law by Gov. Robert Casey, a transplant recipient himself, was Act 102.Since Act 102 went into effect, every death in Pennsylvania must be reported to Gift of Life to determine potential suitability for organ or tissue transplant. If it is determined that the donor is a suitable candidate then the person’s driver’s license is checked to see if the person is a registered donor.“The driver’s license is a legal document,” says Nathan. “We will talk to the family, but the family cannot go back on the person’s wishes. Often in two out of three cases where the person is not a donor, the families still agree to donation. People are very generous in what is often the worst time of their lives.“This region is amazing,” Nathan said. “We have the largest number of potential donors in the U.S. and possibly the world. We have also been the leading region in actual donations for over 20 years. These are neighbors helping neighbors. I like to stress that.”Nathan said that Act 102 has been so successful in Pennsylvania that it is now the federal standard for transplant donor screening.Gift of Life has 45 full-time transplant coordinators that work 24/7 at the 129 hospitals in the region. The group on average screens 40,000 death calls per year, of that number about 3,000 are on ventilators at or near brain death. The transplant coordinators will personally screen every one of those 3,000 patients for transplant suitability. Of that group only 750 to 800 are suitable candidates for transplant donations and only about 500 become actual donors, which equates to about 2 percent of the deaths in the region. In 2015 there were 482 donors.Each donor can save up to eight recipients. A donor can contribute two kidneys, two lungs, heart, liver, pancreas and intestines.The heart is the last organ to be harvested and the one that has the shortest survival time outside the body. Often the heart is flown to the transplant center. Other organs may survive much longer.Tissue donations may come from donors who died other than brain death. There are up to 40 different potential tissue donations.An organ donor who is also a tissue donor could potentially save or help 50 recipients.Gift of Life services are free for the donor family. For information go to www.donors1.org.Nathan said Pennsylvania has nearly 4.5 million drivers who have chosen to be potential organ donors by selecting that option on their driver’s license.“I would love to see all Pennsylvanians make it their New Year’s resolution to make the selection,” Nathan said.