At 39 years old, a lean 6'5, and a devoted dad to two young children, Chevon looks like the picture of health. You wouldn't know that he has been living with congestive heart failure for more than a decade and has spent seven years on the heart transplant waitlist.

Ten years ago, dizziness and shortness of breath sent Chevon to Memorial Hospital West for help. After being diagnosed with this advanced form of heart failure, where the heart can’t pump enough blood and oxygen to meet the needs of his body, leading to a backup or congestion of fluid in the tissue, arms, legs, and lungs, he was told he had three months to live and given a LifeVest Wearable Defibrillator, followed by an implanted defibrillator. Unfortunately, his condition continued to deteriorate.

After cycling through hospitals as his condition worsened, Chevon found his way to Memorial Regional Hospital ER, where he met Iani Patsias, MD, chief of Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation at Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute, and a team that has helped him keep fighting ever since. He affectionately gave him the nickname “Dr. Jesus” for saving his life.

Over the years, he has undergone numerous procedures, including the implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) six years ago. This mechanical heart pump helps do the work his heart can no longer do on its own while he waits for a donor heart.

Unfortunately, his height and blood type has made finding a matching donor heart more challenging, leading to an unusually long wait time of seven years. Most heart transplant patients wait a few weeks or months for a lifesaving donor heart.

“Chevon has the most common blood type, O positive,” says Jose Garcia, MD, chief of Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Programs. “This means he’s competing with more people for compatible hearts.”

Despite everything, Chevon has been an advocate and volunteer, teaching EMS teams how to respond to people with heart pumps and supporting other patients learning to live with an LVAD.

In February 2026, Chevon had to be hospitalized for the fourth time to treat an ongoing infection caused by the cable that connects the LVAD’s internal pump in his heart to the external controller outside of his body.

Luckily, while Chevon was hospitalized, he finally received the news he'd been waiting over seven years to hear while on the phone with his daughter—they found a match!

Now that he's recovering at home from his heart transplant, he wants to rest, spend time with family, and most importantly, build sand castles at the beach with his kids and treat his wife to a spa day.