Two new hearts find each other.(Advertising Supplement)(Advertisement)

One might expect a patient who has used every aspect of heart services, including a heart transplant, to be middle aged or older. But sometimes even young, seemingly healthy individuals develop conditions that require expert care.

Pat Bealmear, a former Marine, was only 29 and visiting a Nascar Race in Charlotte, N.C., when he developed severe shortness of breath. He went to the hospital and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, in which damage to the heart prevents normal pumping from occurring. A doctor told Pat that he had the biggest heart he had ever seen.

Pat's parents brought him back to Terre Haute where he was hospitalized for two weeks. Physicians think a virus may have caused his heart trouble. His condition worsened, and he was in and out of the hospital eight times during the following three months.

The father of two daughters, Pat was getting weaker. Finally, his doctor referred him to Methodist Hospital at Clarian Health. "I went there to die," he says. …