Jericho man celebrates anniversary of heart transplant

On a day to celebrate affairs of the heart, Harvey Yaris and 65 friends and family members toasted the one that saved his life.

A year ago Monday, Yaris, 66, of Jericho, underwent heart transplant surgery after more than eight years on a waiting list.

"I've never been a terribly religious man," he told the crowd at the North Ritz Club in Syosset. "But there's no reason in this world, besides God, that I should be standing here. God decided it's not my time."

By Valentine's Day 2009, Yaris, retired as chief executive of a consumer sampling company, had nearly given up waiting for a new heart. He'd suffered two major heart attacks and was so weak he could not walk and talk at the same time. His heart was pumping so little blood that his kidneys were near failure and also needed replacing.

VIDEO: Click here to meet the Yaris'

His cardiologist, Dr. Gary Friedman of St. Francis Hospital in Flower Hill, said his heart was functioning at only 5 percent of its capacity.

"He would not have lasted much longer," Friedman said Sunday.

Then, at 9:30 p.m. during Valentine's Day dinner on the Upper West Side - a place Yaris said he rarely goes - he got a call from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in Washington Heights.

His friend Bob Feinstein of Hicksville, whose cousin Eve Orlans Mayer hosted the dinner, recalled Yaris' end of the conversation. "He went, 'What? Now? Both?' " Feinstein said. "Then he said to Eve, 'Sorry, we're not having dessert.' "

Feinstein and wife, Barbara, drove Yaris and his wife, Deena, 80 blocks uptown to the hospital, where the next day he received the heart of a 54-year-old man. The day after that he received the donor's kidney.

Now Yaris, whose first heart attack came when he was 46, said he feels better than he can ever remember. For the first time in his life, he was able to walk on a treadmill and ride an exercise bicycle. His eight grandchildren, who chased each other about the North Ritz ballroom, had never seen him so healthy.

"I can do 50 percent more than I ever could for the last 25 years," he said.

All thanks to an anonymous man - Yaris and his family know nothing about him - who made the choice before he died to be an organ donor.

"A toast," Yaris said, glass raised, "to good health and to organ donation."