Gerd Kuck was 24 years old when he was diagnosed with an incurable heart muscle inflammation. In 2000, he suffered a heart attack which forced him to live with a pacemaker with defibrillator function.
Since April 2008, Gerd Kuck has been on the waiting list for a new heart. His chances were bad: He’s 1.96 meters, needs a big heart.
With his blood type 0 positive, he competes with many patients.
In 2013, he became so weak that he almost died, so the doctors transplanted him an artificial heart. He marries again, gets a daughter, builds a house. In November 2017, at 51, it becomes clear that he won’t survive with his artificial heart.
In Germany, with 797 organ donors a year, the number has fallen to a historic low in 2017. There, with the number of 9.3 donors per one million inhabitants in 2017, the willingness to donate is so low, that the membership in Eurotransplant is now under discussion. A „serious organ donation system“ is defined by at least ten donors per million inhabitants. On the 5th September 2018, after 3802 days of waiting, he had a transplant with success. Soon, he wants to start working again.
