Columbus heart transplant patient leaves hospital after two months
After two months in an Atlanta hospital, the time had finally come for Dominique Ogletree to go home to Columbus. A telephone call changed his plans.
“Has Dominique eaten anything yet?” an anxious voice on the other end of the line asked the boy’s mother, Demetria Ogletree.
She replied he hadn’t.
“Good,” was the response. “We’ve got one.”
A few hours later, the 16-year-old was on the operating table receiving a new heart.
It was March 23. Dominique would be in surgery for more than eight hours.
Eight days later, he’d be back in his own bed.
“It’s really unbelievable,” said his mother, a team leader at a local Burger King. She is also raising Dominique’s two younger sisters and a niece.
When she received the call that morning, the mother and son were staying at a Ronald McDonald house. It was their fourth day there. The only reason he wasn’t still in hospital room was that a Thoratec IVAD — Implantable Ventricular Assist Device — had been put in his body. The reason he was still in Atlanta was that doctors wanted to make sure it would work properly before he left.
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