Sports were 17-year-old Diego’s life. Then his heart stopped on the soccer field. What he thought was asthma turned out to be a rare congenital heart defect.
His best friend called 911 when he collapsed. A stranger started CPR. Paramedics rushed him to the closest children’s hospital.
“They started an IV,” Diego said, “and that’s the last thing I remember until I woke up three months later.”
Diego was placed in a medically induced coma and given advanced heart-lung support. The cardiac arrest had damaged his heart, so he was given a mechanical pump until he could get a transplant.
Diego’s parents took turns at his bedside. His sister, Laura took the semester off from college to help her parents as an interpreter. They speak English, but Laura – a biomedical engineering major – better understood medical terms and issues.
When doctors brought Diego out of the coma three months later, he couldn’t speak, swallow or move. His kidneys shut down. Oxygen deprivation had caused muscle tissue in his lower left leg to dissolve. He had to have several toes amputated.
Diego underwent extensive physical therapy and surgeries, including a tracheostomy. About 8 months after his cardiac arrest, Diego received a heart and kidney transplant.
That was 12 years ago. More surgeries and other physical complications followed in the years after Diego’s transplant, but he kept moving forward.
He got a business degree and became an entrepreneur. Now he’s working on becoming a real estate broker.
He also volunteers to help Spanish-speaking patients and their families communicate with healthcare teams – as his sister Laura did.
“It’s been a grueling and consistent process,” Diego said, “but I’m infinitely proud of how I’ve been able to beat the odds. It’s a bit of a miracle that I’m able to do the things I do today.”
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Read Diego’s Story From the Heart:
heart.org/en/news/2026/09/25…