From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need.

My story is about a group of unsung heroes.

He just pulled up a chair and we talked, I'd say for about 90 minutes or so. I don't know if she really

understands or appreciates the full impact that she's had in my life and still

continues to have. Today's story comes from Andy Davis.

In the fall of 2020, my wife and I were,

had just completed a bike ride and were sitting on the tailgate of our truck and at that time we decided

we would celebrate raising three children by riding our bicycles across the country.

That winter, we trained hard in our basement

and we poured over maps to try to figure out where we would camp along the way.

Unfortunately... to try to figure out where we would camp along the way.

Unfortunately, on February 24th,

just a couple months before leaving on our trip,

I experienced crazy pain across my chest.

I was sent by helicopter twice to different hospitals.

I was stabilized and I emerged from that in heart failure caused by a virus.

Nobody knows exactly what did it but it was possibly COVID. I felt crazy palpitations in my chest all the time and I was always afraid that my heart would stop eating.

By November I was placed on the heart transplant list and you don't know if you're going to get a heart if you're placed on the list.

You just hope and my condition deteriorated really quickly and so a balloon was placed in my aorta for 11 days and on the 12th day, December 12th, I learned that my new heart was on its way and went into

to surgery hoping that I would see people and my family on the other side. I was never able to meet my unsung

hero. Her name was Sarah Ivy. And I know from speaking with her husband that she was a mother and a wife and at this point she is now literally a part of me.

I've been living with my new heart now for over a year.

...