Arizona
Arizona heart transplant recipient encouraging others to give the gift of life
PHOENIX – “Be positive” is a young Arizona man’s motto’ and it is appropriate for a number of reasons.
Musa Sayegh has that exact blood type, and that motto helped him get through some of the darkest days of his life.
With every step and every curl, Sayegh is thankful.
“Thanks to the doctors, thanks to the nurses, thanks to the donor, oh my God, the donor,” Sayegh said. “Bless him and his family for giving me the opportunity to live.”
In 2017, Sayegh was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, and needed a defibrillator implanted. Recently, he was diagnosed with sudden cardiac death.
“Sudden cardiac death is where you have a heart rhythm problem where you lose consciousness, and if it’s not addressed, it can actually be a life-ending event for a patient,” Dr. Lisa Lemond said.
Dr. Lemond is a transplant cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. It’s where the 33-year-old went after passing out in April.
“I got shocked about 20-30 times, according to some of my doctors, from my defibrillator,” Sayegh said. “Doctors were telling me I coded.”
Sayegh needed a transplant. The medical team decided to intubate him, and machines would keep him alive as they waited for a heart.
“While he was asleep, we listed him for heart transplant, and we were able to get him an organ later, and he woke up with a heart transplant,” Dr. Lemond said.
A donor who was a perfect match died within the week, and that meant that Sayegh got to live.
“Once I realized I had a new heart I was like, wow I have a new heart?,” Sayegh said. “Then, all I felt after that was, like, I felt it beating. It was beating so hard, so hard. I could feel it throughout my whole body. Something I’ve never felt before. Really.”
Sayegh feels healthy. He’s dropped 25 pounds, and his wedding is fast approaching. The new heart has truly been a new start.
“He’s doing really, really well,” Dr. Lemond said. “So even though heart transplant sounds like a big surgery, scary endeavor, our success rate of getting patients safely through transplant are incredibly high.”
Sayegh takes about 30 pills a day, and will likely be on medication for the rest of his life, but it’s a life he’s grateful to be living. In the future, Sayegh and his fiancé would love to meet the family of the donor to say thank you in person. They also encourage people to sign up to become a donor.
Donate Life Arizona
Done Vida Arizona (Donate Life Arizona’s website in Spanish)
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Christmas is over, but the stores and malls are busy one day later—shoppers either returning gifts that weren’t quite right or spending some of that holiday cash.
“A lot of the stores we went to, you had to wait in lines just to get from one store to the other,” said Jeannie Mac. “It was pretty busy.”
When you think of holiday shopping, you often think of items flying off the shelves.
“There are a lot of discounts at target, 50% off all decorations. You’d be surprised. The shelves are a little empty,” said shopper Joseph Caruana.
But the day after Christmas, many of those items end up back in-store. This year, returns are expected to add up to 17% of all merchandise sales, according to a recent report by the National Retail Federation. It’s about $890 billion in returned unneeded or unwanted gifts.
However, not everyone was there for returns or exchanges.
“Everyone enjoyed the presents, so didn’t have to return anything, thankfully,” said Max Miely.
Many people Arizona’s Family spoke with were mainly there looking to spend their holiday money, including Jenn Neild, who was visiting from Canada.
“We’re just looking around for some post Christmas deals, Boxing Day deals,” she said.
Boxing Day is traditionally a holiday similar to Black Friday, celebrated in the U.K. and Canada.
It was a good opportunity for shoppers who came out ready to use their holiday gift cards or, in other cases, to claim their Christmas gifts.
“We just went to go get my cousins ear pierced for her Christmas present and we’re going to be shopping for pajamas and different things,” said Morgan Uperesa, another shopper.
Because Dec. 26 and Dec. 27 are historically the busiest days for returns, the Better Business Bureau advises you to bring any receipts to the store.
If you don’t have one, they say you should know the rules on returns without it.
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ARIZONA — Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon says the progress of running back James Conner has been “good” this week as the team prepares to battle the Los Angeles Rams in Week 17.
Gannon, however, wouldn’t elaborate more on Conner and didn’t reveal if he’d play in Saturday night’s primetime battle.
Conner is dealing with a knee injury suffered in the second half of Week 16’s loss to the Carolina Panthers, a 36-30 overtime defeat that saw Arizona’s postseason dreams officially end.
Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said James Conner’s progression from his knee injury has been “good.”
JG did not go further as to whether or not he’ll be good to go on Saturday. — Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) December 26, 2024
Conner was a limited participant in the two prior practice days for Arizona and if he is again the same for Thursday, it’s likely he’ll officially be ruled questionable when the injury report drops later today.
“We’ll see how he goes throughout the week. I know he wants to play, so we’ll do what’s best for him first and then what’s best for the team,” Gannon said of Conner earlier this week.
Once again, Conner has been one of Arizona’s top players throughout the course of the season, once again eclipsing the 1,000-yard rushing mark as the engine of the Cardinals’ offense.
The ink just dried on Conner’s two-year extension to stay in Arizona, as the running back was set to test the free agent market before the Cardinals re-signed him earlier in the year.
If he can go, Conner hopes to help play the role of spoiler in Los Angeles, as the Rams can win the NFC West with a victory over Arizona and a little help.
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Gunshots reportedly rang out at Terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor on Christmas night.
Airport officials tell Arizona’s Family that police responded to reports of gunfire around 9:40 p.m. on Wednesday.
One security checkpoint and the PHX Sky Train was temporarily closed as part of the investigation, however the areas have since reopened.
At this time, police have not confirmed if anyone is injured or if anyone has been taken into custody in connection with the shooting.
Arizona’s Family has a crew on scene. Check back for updates
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Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
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