‘A big anniversary’: Crest Hill family reflects on 10 years of their son’s transplant survival

Just as Dan Lindblad and his 14-year-old son Nick sat down to a special seafood dinner in Nick’s hospital room at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, a nurse walked in with life-changing news: A donor heart had just become available.

Ten years later, Nick is now a healthy 24-year-old working full time and planning a trip with his dad to Japan, something that was unfathomable Aug. 2, 2015, when he received the news of his transplant.

“We want to put it out there that it’s been 10 years,” Dan Lindblad said. “That’s a big anniversary for a heart transplant. We went through hell with all this. From the day he got that heart, our lives changed.”

The Crest Hill family has been through quite a journey.

Nick was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which means the left side of his heart never functioned properly, and he required multiple heart surgeries before his transplant.

“We knew from the time he was born that he had heart problems. One side of his heart just didn’t work, but his body really started to fail him in 2012,” Dan Lindblad said.

By 2014, complications from Nick’s heart condition began to cause his liver to malfunction, and for a while, the family feared he would need transplants for both organs.

“The doctors at University of Chicago referred us to Lurie Children’s for the transplant,” Dan Lindblad recalled. “They did tests and determined that if he could get a new heart, then his liver would be able to repair itself.”

Nick was listed as high priority for a heart transplant on May 3, 2015, and waited 77 days before learning he would receive the lifesaving organ.

“It was a crazy coincidence because 77 was always his favorite number,” Dan Lindblad said.

The procedure lasted 14 hours, and shortly after Nick got out, Dan said he needed to be rushed back into surgery because the heart had started leaking.

“We went 24 hours without sleep,” Dan Lindblad said. “We went through every emotion with him that day.”

Complications and recovery

Nick Lindblad’s recovery was complicated by the discovery of a benign tumor on his spine shortly before his transplant, which left him unable to walk. It required an additional surgery to remove the tumor three months after the transplant.

“He had lost all use of his legs when he got his heart,” Dan Lindblad said. “We didn’t know if he was ever going to walk again, but that night after the back surgery, he managed to wiggle his toe, and we knew it was a success.”

The Lindblads – Dan, Nick and Dan’s wife Cathy, who came into their lives when Nick was 5 – spent eight months living at the hospital and the Ronald McDonald House throughout 2015.

Dan and Cathy traded shifts in the hospital so the other could work or sleep.

Until recently, Nick Lindblad still saw doctors at Lurie, including for the installation of a pacemaker after a scare with his heart in 2017 and an appendectomy in 2024.

He is currently in the process of transferring care to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

“As an adult at Northwestern, he has to handle most of it on his own, which has been a challenge as a parent – letting go,” Cathy Lindblad said.

Continued care, support

Dan and Cathy still help support Nick with his care through the Open Your Heart Foundation, which they set up for fundraising at the time of Nick’s surgeries.

The fund is now supported through the sales of Open Your Heart Salsa, a brand of homemade salsas and jellies that the Lindblads make and sell locally at fairs and events.

“Every penny we make on the salsa goes to the foundation to help pay for his continued care,” Dan said.

While Nick Lindblad’s care transfers from Lurie, the family still is involved at the hospital as a way of giving back to the community that has been such a large part of their lives.

Cathy Lindblad is certified as a ParentWISE volunteer with the hospital, which involves talking with parents of current patients to give them support and advice from her experience.

Nick Lindblad also has explored becoming a PeerWISE volunteer, which would put him in touch with current child patients to share his experiences and offer support.

Community support

“There’s still a lot of medical bills, but we don’t like to ask for a lot of support anymore,” Dan Lindblad said.

During his son’s illness, the family received support from the Chicago Polar Bears, a nonprofit organization that hosts an annual “Polar Plunge” fundraising event to help Chicago-area families. The group paid the Lindblad’s mortgage for a year so the family could focus on Nick.

Dan Lindblad now volunteers on the Chicago Polar Bears committee that helps pick families to receive similar support.

“There have been so many people who’ve helped us and who were there for us, in the Lockport and Crest Hill communities and in the hospital,” Dan said. “It’s meant so much to us. We want to be able to give back and to give a personal thank you to everyone who has helped us.”

Part of that thank you is a party the Lindblads are hosting Aug. 3 at their Crest Hill home to celebrate the anniversary.

“It’s been 10 years. That’s an important chapter, but we’re not done yet,” Dan Lindblad said.

“It’s a really big milestone, and I’m proud of all the progress I’ve made, and I’m hopeful for the future,” Nick Lindblad said.

Nick has his driver’s license, has taken classes at Joliet Junior College and got his first full-time job at Food 4 Less in Joliet.

“He loves his job, and he loves to read. He’s very interested in political science and current events, and loves learning about other cultures,” Dan Lindblad said. “I’m going to support whatever he does.”

In the short term, that support includes going on a trip to Japan together this fall.

“He likes taking the new heart out for a ride. He’s been saving his money and said he wanted to go to Japan,” Dan Lindblad said. “At first, when he brought it up, me going with him, I thought, ‘No way.’ But then he told me he really wanted to do this for me and that he planned on paying for both of us. I was really touched. So we’re going in a few months. It’s exciting.”

“I like traveling in general,” Nick Lindblad said. “And I have a lot of places I want to go someday.”