*Original story published on Tufts Medical Center's website – 09/08/2015.* To say Pat Sullivan and Bob Romer are bonded for life would be an understatement. Recent heart transplant recipients at Tufts MC’s Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Center, their extended, intertwining sagas are analogous to Frodo and Sam’s quest in The Lord of The Rings trilogy: harrowing, life-threatening, ultimately successful, and unquestionably epic. Midway through their yearlong stay at Tufts

Name: Don Mitchell Age: 61 Age at Diagnosis: 39 Procedures: heart transplant; kidney transplant …Shocker My heart disease started at the very young age of 39. I was very active physically, worked out religiously. After doctors performed an angioplasty, I recovered quite well and was able to start exercising again. A couple of years later, my wife and I had our second child. Life was good. We were working a lot with two small children. However, as time went on, I started to