Heart transplant recipient turns 15

By Ty Walker, The Mountain Times

Dancing days are here again for this Welches teenager. After spending most of her childhood suffering from a heart condition, Ellie McCloskey is learning how to dance.

Four years ago, on Nov. 15, 2022, Ellie underwent heart transplant surgery that saved her life. She was 11 years old at the time. Ellie is now a healthy freshman at Franklin High School in Portland, and will turn 15 on Nov. 13.

Ellie will celebrate two birthdays this month. One for her actual birthday, the other, two days later, for her heart.

“She’s been absolutely fantastic,” her father Brandon McCloskey said. “No problems with her heart.”

Her prognosis didn’t look so good five years ago, at age 7, when Ellie was diagnosed with a heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. In June 2022, she was growing worse, suffering complications from the condition. Doctors determined it was urgent that she receive a heart transplant.

She had pulmonary hypertension so bad that she would pass out walking up the stairs.

The family went to Palo Alto, Calif., in July 2022 to wait for a suitable donor heart with a similar antibody profile for the operation. Four months later, on Ellie’s birthday, the McCloskeys finally got the long-awaited phone call that there was a donor.

Ellie entered surgery in the early morning Nov. 15, 2022, at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital in Stanford, Calif., and 14 hours later had successfully received the heart transplant. Her father called them “the longest hours of his life.”

Ellie must take organ rejection medication and be monitored and tested regularly for the rest of her life. Otherwise she can live a healthy, active lifestyle.

Ellie, who splits her time with her father in Welches and her mother in Southeast Portland, leads an active lifestyle with many interests. She’s really into the arts, drama, photography, and ceramics. An avid dancer, she has taken dance classes the past four years.

She likes snowboarding on Mount Hood, riding quads on the dunes, hiking, biking, fishing, creating nail art, and reading. She also loves animals.

She has aspirations of being a pediatric cardiologist. She wants to help other children who suffered like she did.

“She does have a direction,” her father said. “She wants to go into pediatric nursing to help other cardiac kids.”

Ellie recently joined the Red Cross Club and Future Medical Professionals Club at school. Like many 15-year-olds, she is looking forward to getting her driver's permit.