May 29, 1984, marked the first time in Ottawa that a second shot at life became possible because of a heart transplant performed at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.
The inaugural patient was 42-year-old truck driver Jean-Guy Villeneuve, whose heart was in such bad shape that he wasn’t expected to survive two more months without the groundbreaking operation. Dr. Wilbert Keon — who founded the Institute — performed the high-risk surgery with a team of 13, including seven heart surgeons. Later, when asked whether he was tense during the operation, Dr. Keon replied: “It was very enjoyable.”
As for Jean-Guy, he not only survived, but he also thrived. A year after his surgery, he reportedly loved giving his friends a scare by running up and down sets of stairs. “I feel lucky and I’m thankful,” he once said of his second lease on life.
Jean-Guy returned to the hospital in 1992 for a second heart transplant.
The extraordinary medical care given to him extended his life by more than two decades. In January 2007, he died at age 65 at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, where a retired Dr. Keon made a point of visiting his former patient in hospital during the Christmas holidays.
