Sandy organ transplant recipient educates community about 'donating life'

When Tracy Hoyle was 15, her mother died. But because she was an organ donor, parts of her were able to live on in others.

Years later, when Hoyle was in college, she was diagnosed with multiple heart conditions and was later told she would need to receive a heart transplant.

“In college, I was feeling like I was going to pass out all of the time,” Hoyle explained. This led her to visit the OSU student clinic where she was initially misdiagnosed with mitral valve prolapse. “They told me a lot of women have it and usually grow out of it.”

When her condition lasted longer than expected, Hoyle sought a second opinion in 1997. That’s when a doctor found her heart was beating irregularly and was likely damaged and sent her to a cardiologist at the Oregon Clinic.

That same year, at 27, Hoyle received a pacemaker.

“They were hoping it would take the stress off of my heart long enough to heal,” she explained.

With the pacemaker, Hoyle was still very active and athletic. But over time, she found she was more and more fatigued. At first, she thought “this is just how my life is,” and disregarded not feeling well.

But later a check up would find she had only 11%-15% heart function. A few weeks later edema, a symptom of congestive heart failure, set in, causing her legs to swell from fluid in her leg tissue, and she was hospitalized and put on the list for a heart transplant.

The turnaround for Hoyle to receive a heart was quicker than it is for many others. She was put on the list in March 2000 and received her first heart transplant on April 12, 2000.

“To only wait for a month is uncommon,” Hoyle explained. When determining priority, healthcare professionals usually consider factors like how sick someone is, how long they’ve been waiting, geological location, blood type and body size. Hoyle was lucky to be high on the list given available organs and severity of her condition.

It was because of others like her mother that Hoyle was able to live, and she actually became the first person to give birth to a child within a year of a transplant in 2001, when her son Trent was born.

Hoyle’s journey, while full of little miracles, hasn’t been easy. Transplanted organs have limited lifespans. And sometimes the medication necessary to keep a transplanted organ functioning can also have a negative impact on other parts of a recipient’s body.

That’s why in October 2012 Hoyle had a second transplant of not only a new heart but a kidney, because her medication had caused kidney failure.

“The lifespan for transplanted hearts was 8-10 years then,” she said. “After 9-10 years, I got sick again, and I was relisted and found I needed kidneys as well.”

Hoyle got so sick she was hospitalized for 43 days before her transplant.

Despite what some might see as a less than ideal lot in life, Hoyle has spent much of her adult life with a positive outlook, and educating others on organ, eye and tissue donation while also serving in the Sandy community she grew up in and is still a part of.

In 2001, baby carrier in hand, Hoyle began volunteering with what was formerly a program called Discover OHSU. Discover OHSU invited schools with healthcare-related programs to come and learn from doctors as well as people impacted by organ donations.

This was when Hoyle began to share her story.

In 2014, the program shifted and Donate Life Northwest evolved. This program, which Hoyle still serves with today, trains medical professionals and those with personal ties to organ, eye and tissue donation, to go into drivers education, science and health classes in high school and teach about organ donation.

Through Donate Life Northwest, Hoyle has visited schools in the Gresham-Barlow, Sandy, West Linn, Colton and David Douglas School Districts, as well as others.

“It’s taken time for the schools to understand the value (of education about organ donation),” Hoyle explained. “Going into 2025, there will actually be legislation requiring education in schools on organ, eye and tissue donation.”

Hoyle, now 53, said though the kids she presents to now are even younger than her son, she still feels she can relate to them and, as a result, make an impact.

“I was 15, around their age, when I lost my mom, and she was a donor,” Hoyle said. “I feel like I can through my experience explain things to them.”

Hoyle said the biggest myth and misperception she’s found students have about organ donation is the idea that doctors and EMS professionals won’t do everything in their power to save someone if they are a known organ donor.

Hoyle explained that this simply isn’t true given doctors’ required oath to “do no harm.”

And, fortunately, Hoyle said, she’s been able to reach a few students and even teachers with her presentations.

“If I can change one person’s mind about what organ, eye and tissue donation means, I feel that honors my two donors and my mom,” Hoyle added. “It’s rewarding to see how much we’ve taught them, sometimes in only 40 minutes.”