Home for the holidays after heart transplant

MERIDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Jeffrey Montalvo has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
 
A rare heart condition placed the 21-year-old on a list of people waiting for an organ donor. He came home with a new heart on Monday, energized and pumped up to take on new challenges.    

A sign of love is what greeted Montalvo.

"It's just incredible to be home after five months," said Montalvo.

He arrived at his Meriden home on Monday.

"Just sitting in the hospital and all that, it's not a 21-year-old's life," Montalvo said.

He was admitted to Hartford Hospital after complications in his battle with non-compaction cardio-myopathy.

"I came home one day after working both jobs, went to sleep and I woke up with chest pain," Montalvo said.

It's a rare heart condition that is also a congenital birth defect.
 
"We never knew so it was quite a shock," said Clarisa Cardona, mother. "He did suffer from Crohn's at the age of 16, other than that he was always healthy."
    
The diagnosis did put him on the waiting list for an organ donor . He celebrated his 21st birthday in the hospital waiting.  

He finally got one earlier this month.

"He's 43. He's from Bay State, Massachusetts," Montalvo said. "He was a hero. He was an organ donor.  Organ donors are heroes."

Montalvo is feeling good and is getting used to his new heart.

"I just have to get used to the beating," Montalvo said. 

"What's that like," asked News 8's Jocelyn Maminta.

"It's incredible. I have a pulse now," he said. "I didn't have a pulse with the l-vap and now I have a pulse."

"I find that he's given me strength because he is such a positive young man, so why am I going to buckle when he is so strong," Cardona said.

Family and friends help keep him strong. So now he's vigilant in getting others to sign on as organ donors.

"You're giving gifts away after you are gone," Montalvo said. "You live through somebody else. My donor is living through me right now."   

This Thanksgiving, the day to give thanks, is even more meaningful.

"I'm thankful for my family, my angel of a girlfriend, all the people that supported me and organ donation, the people that are organ donors because I wouldn't be here without one," he said.

Montalvo's diagnosis led to testing his sisters for non-compaction cardio-myopathy. A younger sister also has it and is now on medication and will not require a heart transplant.  
   
For more information on how to become an organ donor Montalvo has his own website and Facebook page .