It’s Tee Time For Erik Compton!

Image Source: www.palmbeachpost.com

Now that’s what you call determination! It’s a ‘heartening’ story of Erik Compton who recently made it to the US Open Golf championship. And Compton, a two time heart-transplant recipient from Miami has won accolades for his inspiring story.

It was in 1992 that he was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, which is a disease which enlarges the heart muscle and restricts blood flow. And he had to get a new heart on February 22 that year because of the disease but recovered and became a top junior golfer, which won him a scholarship to the University of Georgia and even has to his credit two wins on the Canadian tour. His diseased heart was replaced by the surgeons at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital with one from a 15-year-old donor Jannine who had been killed by a drunk driver.

Compton in September 2007 suffered a heart attack and in May 2008 had to be given another heart. He received the heart of a University of Dayton volleyball player Isaac, who had been killed in a road accident and again in six months he was back on the golf course and participated in the PGA Tour Qualifying School.

He is now 30, when he qualified for the US Open, he is taking the best sips of his life by following his dream. The man who has had three hearts in 30 years of his life still has the heart to play. And he has no feeling in his upper left leg, and that’s because the heart/lung machine lines run between his groin and thigh.