Boston Med features Guilford teen

Guilford, Conn. (WTNH) - The real life drama of a Guilford teen was just seen on the ABC show Boston Med.

Sara Dumas had to undergo a heart transplant to save her life. Now her life is full of possibilities.

Sara had that transplant more than a year ago and since then, the effervescent 18-year old 'graduated' from high school and is now heading off to college.

Dumas spent three months at Children's Hospital Boston waiting patiently for a life saving procedure. The 18-year old was born with a congenital heart defect called hypertrophic-cardio-myopathy. "Hypertrophic cardio-myopathy is basically the stiffening of the heart muscle, which prevents it from contracting and relaxing and is therefore not as efficient pumping blood through the body," said Lisa Dumas Sara's mother.

Sara needed a new heart and the family's roller coaster ride for a heart transplant was the focus of this week's Boston Med.

Today, Sara is stronger and is living the life of a normal teenager. "I try to be conscious of it because I think I owe it to the donor to remember the limitations before and sometimes I forget," explained Sara. "Then I'm like wow, I should really be realizing what I can do compared like a year and a half ago. So I try just for the donor's sake to appreciate what I have now compared to then."

"We want to bring a lot of awareness to organ donation and how really truly important it is, and what a gift of life it actually is," advocated Sara's mom.

For Sara, there are daily reminders that life is not all that it appears. "I have to be mindful of infection risk and rejection risk and I have to take pills every 12 hours but that's easy," said Sara.

What is not easy for the family is that Sara's brother, 15 year old Ian also suffers from the same heart defect and will need a heart transplant. "It will be good in the sense that I will know what's coming next and what to be prepared for, but at the same time I know what it was like sitting there in the waiting room," said Sara's mom.

Meantime, freshman year at UConn is what's coming up next for Sara. "I've wanted to be a pediatric cardiologist since seventh grade because that's when I started really getting into hospitals," said Sara.

Meanwhile, her mom says that 'Ian' will be listed for a heart transplant in the not too distant future.

For more information on how 'you' can be an organ donor visit the New England Organ Bank's website.