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Friends and family celebrated with Cindy Catlett on her "re-birth" day, on September 24, 2019. The big event marked the first anniversary of her back-to-back heart and kidney transplant surgeries. She was the first patient at Cleveland Clinic with AL amyloidosis to undergo chemotherapy to stop production of the amyloidosis protein, followed by heart and kidney transplants to counteract the damage the condition had caused.
"It's been quite the adventure for me and truly a miracle that I'm alive. Without my hospital team, prayers and our faith, it would have been much harder to get through this," she remarks.
Cindy, now age 65, was in good health in 2016 when she noticed, during a car ride to and from Cincinnati, that her legs and ankles were swollen. Shortly thereafter, she and her husband, Ron, saw the swelling again.