I was a patient at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville on July 14, 2005 suffering from congestive heart failure and had a pacemaker/defibrillator that had gone off 6 times in one day, delivering knockout shocks and burning down to my toes. After being stabilized, I was placed in a regular room for observation. I had already been undergoing pre-transplant evaluation for a possible heart transplant and had only two days before been officially placed on the transplant list. I became aware that three of my nurses had received their training and degrees from Auburn and we had exchanged “war eagle” several times during this and prior hospitalizations. On this particular date while eating lunch, a transplant surgeon came into my room and told me to stop eating, that he thought he had me a heart and that it looked good, but it would be about 30 minutes before he would know for sure. Shortly, thereafter these three Auburn-trained nurses came into my room and notified me that it was a go and then began to sing the Auburn fight song, ” War Eagle fly down the field, always to conquer, never to yield. War Eagle fearless and true, fight on you orange and blue . . . ” It was a truly inspiring moment for me, and one that I will never forget. It led me into a successful heart transplant surgery, recovery, and rehabilitation that has been nothing less than phenomenal
Carl