Dr. Robert Dowling, cardiac transplantation director at Christ Hospital Health Network, remembers walking out of the intensive care unit and seeing that infectious smile for the first time.
He never really gave that quick interaction a second thought. He sees patients all the time. It comes with being a doctor.
But this time things felt different.
Dowling said the patient was a young woman with a huge smile.
He soon found out that Woods-Hicks, then a 19-year-old woman who was suffering from life-threatening cardiac issues, was going to be one of his patients and at the time was going through pain with a smile on her face.
Weeks earlier, Woods-Hicks, who graduated from Northridge High School and Miami Valley Career Technology Center 2023, was a patient at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Her heart condition was monitored at MVH, and when her health deteriorated, she was transported to Christ through a partnership between Premier Health and The Christ Hospital Health Network.
There were tests and more tests.
Then in late October, Woods was placed on a heart transplant list.
What an odd place to be physically and mentally. Consider, she needed someone to die, be an organ donor and an exact match, for her to live.
One week later, a “perfect heart” was found, and on Nov. 6, 2024, Woods-Hicks received a new heart at Christ Hospital, said Dowling, who refused to identify the donor due to HIPPA regulations.
On Wednesday afternoon, in an outdoor garden area at the hospital and six months after the transplant, there was an opportunity for Woods-Hicks to again meet her transplant team.
“A family reunion” is how Woods described seeing the team members.
Then Liz Eng, a clinical nurse at Miami Valley Hospital who cared extensively for Woods and was one of those who was responsible for transporting Woods to Christ, joined the reunion.
“I could hug you forever,” Dowling told Eng. “You saved her life.”
When asked about that comment later, Eng insisted a team of medical experts gave Woods a second chance at a better life. The job was bigger than one person, she repeated.
Dr. Geetha Bhat, cardiac translation program director at Christ, said fortunately for Woods those at MVH realized the severity of her heart condition and addressed the symptoms before her organs failed.
She said Woods-Hicks was “critically ill” so she received a temporary heart pump.
Her status was evaluated and one week later the transplant team at Christ was notified a heart had been located. Dowling met with Titania Woods, Shania’s mother, to address some of her concerns.
His message was clear and confident, but without making any promises: “This is what we do everyday,” he said.
In the operating room, the surgeons’ nature is to be “aggressive and optimistic,” he said.
Woods is walking proof the transplant worked.
“I feel great,” she said. “I feel energized.”
Dowling smiled, then fought back tears as he talked about the smiling young lady he met six months ago.
“She is why we do what we do,” he said. “It makes the sleepless nights and all the fatigue worth it. It makes the downs not so bad.”
Woods-Hicks said she’s “very grateful” to the donor and she promised to “take care of the heart.”
Throughout the media interviews, Titania Woods sat by herself on a wooden bench.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
When approached, she called having one of her seven daughters require a heart transplant the “worst feeling in the world. That’s my baby, We are so grateful.”
Then she added: “She will do great things. Just wait and see. You will be back one day to talk to her again.”
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