GIBSONVILLE, N.C. — For Brian Carden, of Gibsonville, life is now a lot simpler and so much sweeter.
“I was going 10,000 miles an hour and all that came to a screeching halt,” said Carden.
Carden was director of operations for a large company that custom built private jets and worked some 100 hours a week. “My heart gave out from all the stress. My heart was so weak blood wasn’t getting to the peripheries.”
He had his first heart attack at 47 years old, a second one a few years later. His three grown daughters pretty much moved into the hospital waiting room for a few weeks while his health was so touch and go, doctors weren’t sure he’d make it. When he came to, all he could talk about was this one ICU nurse named Denisa.
“He was so sick when I took care of him,” Denisa told FOX8, “When he left, I always wondered how he was, if he was okay.”
Carden went back to the hospital to find this Denisa his daughters told him about. When he did and saw her for the first time, he says he knew they would marry. “She’s the one with the huge heart. My girls told me how much she worried about me. I was smitten the first second I saw her.”
They have been married now for seven years. Carden had a heart transplant a few years ago, with Denisa by his side. His life these days is far different than the long days of working in the corporate world.
“I made a pledge that I would honor my donor’s life. So now, I just believe in living life to the fullest and giving back. I want to do everything I can to raise awareness about how incredibly meaningful it is to be an organ donor. Someone’s unselfish decision is why I am where I am today,” he said.
To learn more about organ donation in North Carolina, visit donatelifenc.org.
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