Running with renewed spirit

Marisa O’Neil

Jamie Mead has the heart of an 18-year-old and the soles of a

44-year-old.

Those soles will hit the pavement running on Sunday six months

after their wearer got a new heart from an 18-year-old man. The

transplant ended years of illness and renewed his interest in

running, with the 21st annual Spirit Run as motivation.

The Spirit Run, a PTA-sponsored event that raises money for Harbor

View, Eastbluff, Andersen, Lincoln and Newport Coast elementary

schools, has grown from a small neighborhood event to the schools’

top money-maker.

“I chose the Spirit Run because it’s part of everything we do in

the community,” Mead said. “The money is great for the PTA. It

involves so many people. It’s such a great opportunity. In September,

I thought to myself, ‘That’s a good goal.’”

That his wife, Dina, has helped organize the Newport Beach race

most of the past eight years and that two of their three children

attend schools that benefit from the proceeds make it an even more

appropriate step in his recovery process. This will be the first race

he’ll have run since heart problems sidelined his recreational

running career at 37.

Doctors diagnosed him with ventricular tachycardia after he

noticed irregular heart rhythms when he exercised. Dead tissue in his

heart was keeping it from pumping blood to the rest of his body

properly.

He started taking medication for his condition and had a

defibrillator implanted in his chest to shock his heart when it beat

irregularly.

“I had to worry if got my heart rate up too high,” he said. “That

fear of too much activity builds in your psyche, and you’re always

careful not to walk too quickly because it would be the beginning of

a shock. I couldn’t even carry my kids.”

But his heart continued to fail, and doctors bumped him to the top

of the waiting list for a new heart after two and a half years.

Almost immediately after his surgery in September, he said, he felt

completely renewed.

“When you wake up after the transplant, you know you’re a new

person,” he said. “Just 24 hours after, they have you up and walking

around.”

After a week in the hospital, he started going for walks around

the block at home. A week later, he built up to mile-long walks, then

slowly started jogging.

Now he jogs three and a half miles four days a week. Doctors

encouraged him to stick with the exercise because it will help the

recovery process.

“Physically, he’s about 100% from where he was,” Dina Mead said.

“He’s back to being his normal self.”

The Meads are using the race as a chance to educate participants

about organ donation. Goody bags will contain informational pamphlets

and organ donor cards, and Jamie Mead and his 14-year-old daughter,

Christie, will answer questions at a booth during the race expo.

Jamie Mead will always have to take anti-rejection medicine that

weakens his immune system, making him more prone to illness. But

after years of being sick, the former executive for Irvine Apartment

Communities said, he has plenty to look forward to.

“I’ve got a bunch of things I’m doing that I hadn’t done before,”

he said. “I’m refereeing soccer games for my son, I’m an active

softball coach for my daughter. My next goal, after five years of not

being able to work, is finally being able to get a job.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.