Big-Hearted Guy Is
Looking for a Heart

Gary Larocque, 57, is in a Boston hospital, hoping for a heart transplant.

By Sandy Vondrasek Cooch

Gary Larocque is sitting in a Boston hospital, hooked to an IV and hoping that a donated heart arrives before his gives out.

"I’m a pretty scared boy," the 57-year Randolph man admitted in a telephone conversation with The Herald this week.

But he and his close-knit family are trying to stay upbeat through what could be months of waiting.

"I tell myself every day, ‘God loves me and I’m tougher than a can of nails,’" Larocque said.

Larocque and his family are also spreading the word about the importance of organ donation.

His sister, Jeannie Larocque of Braintree, said she has always thought about signing the back of her driver’s license—which is the easiest way to sign up to be a donor—but never had until now.

She stopped by The Herald last week to suggest a story about her brother and the importance of organ donation.

If only one reader were motivated to sign up, Jeannie Larocque said, it could mean a world of difference for someone, somewhere.

Gary Larocque, who has had two triple-bypass surgeries since he had a massive heart attack at age 46, said he had not signed up to be a donor in the past, on the assumption he was not healthy enough. He has reconsidered.

"If someone is willing to give something to me, I can let [others] have anything on me they can take," he said. "It’s just a good thing," he added, "but you don’t think about it ‘til you get in trouble."

Family members, most of whom are signed up as organ donors, are traveling regularly to Tufts New England Medical Center to visit Larocque.

Daughter Amy, who lives in central New York state, said in a telephone interview this week that everyone "is trying to be positive and strong." Larocque’s wife, Lyn and younger daughter Karen live in Randolph. Son Ryan, by good fortune, moved to Massachusetts in the fall. He lives about 15 minutes away from the hospital where his dad has been for the past three weeks.

'Miracle Man'

Gary Larocque’s "miracle man" medical history gives his family reason to be hopeful.

Larocque was at work in White River Junction in 1995 when he started to feel poorly, thinking at first he was suffering from indigestion. It was a massive heart attack. Against odds, he survived it and the emergency surgery that followed.

At the time, Amy Larocque said, doctors told them he might live another five years. That was more than 11 years ago. However, since then Larocque had a second triple-bypass surgery in 2000, and three years ago he was back in the operating room, for a pacemaker/defibrillator.

Larocque can testify that the defibrillator part of the mechanism works. It delivered a shock that "lifted me three feet out of the water," one summer day when he was over-exerting.

It was at the end of a day of boating, and when his electric winch broke, Larocque started cranking by hand, "because I’m too much of a Frenchman; I don’t know when to quit."

In November, Larocque got a new "state of the art" pacemaker, after the first pacemaker could no longer do what was needed to keep his enlarged heart pumping, his daughter said. That pacemaker failed last month, and Larocque has been at Tufts since Feb. 9, hooked up to an IV and dependent on medications to keep his heart pumping.

Her dad is now in the "end stage" of congestive heart failure, Amy Button explained, and his options are limited. The best would be a heart transplant. If the right heart doesn’t arrive sometime soon, his doctors can buy more—but limited—time for Larocque by giving him a "ventricle assist device"—a kind of a pump, or an artificial heart.

"He has about a year or less, unless he gets a heart," she said.

Family members, who have been learning about organ donation in general in the past few weeks, have learned a lot about heart transplants, in particular. The heart needed in this case must come from someone with the same blood type and about the same weight as the 190-pound Larocque, and, it must arrive at the hospital no more than four hours after being "harvested," in organ-donor terminology, from the donor.

As a nurse told the Larocques, when it comes to heart transplants, "The sun, and the moon, and the stars all have to align."

Big-hearted

Amy Button describes her father as a loving man: "He has the biggest heart, ironically."

One of nine children, seven of whom still survive, Gary Larocque grew up in Brookfield and married, he likes to say, "the best-looking girl in her class," Lyn Lamson.

Larocque said this week that he is doing his best to stay busy during his enforced hospital residency. He reads, works Soduko puzzles, watches TV, and gets "a lot of care—someone is in here every other five minutes."

Once a week he is unhooked from the IV, and then he gets a chance to shower and walk around, picking up "tips and tricks" from those who have been in the unit for weeks and months.

He has a phone nearby and welcomes calls "anytime, 24 hours a day, I’m right here," at 617-636-3182. His mailing address is: Tufts New England Medical Center; Cardio-Myopathy Center; Proger 6, Room 634 - Gary Larocque; 750 Washington Street; Boston MA 02111.

A Catholic, he is praying and is grateful for all the prayers being said on his behalf: "I don’t know how many prayer chains I’m on."

Like her Aunt Jeannie, Amy Larocque Button this week urged readers to learn more about organ donation, and recommended the website, donatelife.net.

This and other sites offer detailed answers to questions about organ donation. All sites note the importance of advising family members when signing an organ donor card, whether that is the back of a driver’s license or the "Uniform Donor Card" that is honored in all 50 states.

Organ donation, Amy Button said, "is hard to talk about, so people don’t, but it really is so important."

Ten years from now, she pointed out, the need for donated organs will likely decline, as ever-improved artificial organs are developed.

"But they’re not ready yet," she said.

"He needs a heart," she said of her father. "He needs a heart."

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