By Jeremy A. Corley

Managing Editor

Jack Sanderson is feeling good these days.

The 25-year Van Alstyne resident spends a lot of his time at various doctors' offices, and he gets pretty tired late each afternoon, but he is not complaining -- this is the best he's felt in years.

On Feb. 7, after almost a year of waiting and added difficulties, Sanderson got a new heart.

"I had been dealing with this for all these years," Sanderson said, noting that everything about him was healthy except for his heart. "I had a triple bypass in 1983, but my heart just kept getting weaker and weaker."

After forced retirement and years of feeling his heart get worse, his doctors early last spring told him they couldn't do any more. He was put on the transplant waiting list in March 2009.

During a week of intensive testing in May, when doctors made certain the rest of the 70-year-old's body was in top shape, they told him that due to his "universal recipient" blood type of AB, he shouldn't have to wait long.

Months passed.

When September rolled around, he and his wife of 44 years, Sherry, got a very unwelcome monkey wrench thrown into their plans. She lost her job, and with it their insurance.

Making things even murkier were Congressional discussions about a potential massive overhaul of the health-care industry, which left many doctors uncertain where funding for various programs would come from.

Sanderson and his wife continued to wait and hope for the best as she continued to look for work.

At about 10:20 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, the Sandersons got a phone call from the regional heart transplant center to tell them a heart was available.

"He said, 'We need you here as soon as you can get here,'" Sanderson said. "What a high. We were in the hospital in a room by 11:20."

A social worker at the hospital said she would see what she could do about the insurance situation, and the surgery happened early the next morning.

"I woke up in intensive care, and I was swollen from head to toe," Sanderson said. "I put my hand over my heart, where it should have been, and it made a bumping noise. That was cool."

He said he was lucid and already could feel a strong, positive difference in spite of his appearance.

"As I was laying there on my back feeling my new heart eating, a feeling just came over me of total peace and serenity," he said. "It was Christlike -- I knew I was a new person."

After eight days in the hospital, Sanderson returned home to Van Alstyne, where he is expected to make a full recovery.

"I've already been outside walking up and down the driveway," he said. "I plan on getting on my feet just as quickly as I can."

Sherry and the couple's grown children -- sons Eric and Daron and daughter Parrish -- have juggled their schedules to help provide the six weeks of 24-hour monitoring Sanderson requires.

Sherry recently started working for another company as well.

Sanderson is excited about the possibilities once he is healed.

"My new heart came from a 35-year-old man, so I'm now half my age," he said. "A heart transplant recovers so much quicker than any other procedure. It's very exciting for me."