Transplant surgeon has a new heart: My father’s health and our Father’s grace

Robert Montgomery performed a kidney transplant recently.

What makes the surgeon’s story unique is that, two years ago,
he received a heart transplant himself.

Dr. Montgomery has familial cardiomyopathy, a genetic form
of heart disease affecting the electrical pathways of the heart muscle. The
ailment killed his father at the age of fifty-two and his brother at the age of
thirty-five. He had a defibrillator implanted when he was twenty-nine, which
saved his life many times. He went on to become a surgeon who pioneered
numerous medical advancements.

However, after a series of cardiac arrests and
life-threatening arrhythmias, Dr. Montgomery received a new heart in 2018. Two
weeks later, he returned to work part-time. Three months later, he resumed
seeing patients.

He now wants to be a role model for transplant patients,
given that only about 20 percent of kidney-transplant patients return to work;
even fewer may do so after heart transplants.

“Transplant patients don’t want to be marginalized,” he said. “They want to really be able to turn that page and really get back to their lives.”

My father’s health and our Father’s grace

My father had his first heart attack when I was two years
old and died of a subsequent attack when I was a senior in college. Our family
knows firsthand the challenges heart patients face. Dr. Montgomery’s recovery
from his transplant is inspiring news.

His story points to the importance of courage, the decision
not to accept the status quo or settle for conventional wisdom. If we let
others decide what we can do, we will seldom do all we can.

If we accept our secularized culture’s worldview, however,
trusting conventional wisdom or our own is the best we can do. Conversely,
since our Father’s “ways are higher than your ways” and his
“thoughts than your thoughts,” we can know that his will for us is
always better than we can imagine (Isaiah 55:8).

In fact, he is the…