When COVID-19 brought the world to a halt in early 2020, Dr. Chris Lacroix, a primary care physician in Greenville, North Carolina, found himself facing a different kind of crisis—one that had nothing to do with a virus and everything to do with his own failing heart.
“I was having trouble keeping up with Marlene, my wife,” he recalls. “I felt short of breath. Because I’m a physician and had access to some fluid pills, I took a couple—and sometimes I’d feel better, sometimes I wouldn’t. I was getting some swelling in my legs, and I knew something wasn’t right.”
About six weeks later, Dr. Lacroix experienced chest pain and shortness of breath when picking up an office chair that probably weighed no more than 15 pounds.
“I’d never had any medical problems before, and I thought I was having an asthma attack,” he says. “One of my nurse practitioners ordered a CT scan, and I went the next day.”
A CT scan revealed fluid surrounding his heart and lungs, and after a three week work up with a cardiologist and oncologist, he was diagnosed with amyloidosis—a rare disease where abnormal proteins build up in the body’s organs and tissues, making it hard for them to work properly.
“It’s a bone marrow disorder of the plasma cells that make the antibodies used to protect ourselves from viruses and that kind of stuff,” says Dr. Lacroix. “What happens in some cases is a small piece of the antibody that the plasma cells produce, breaks off and unravels in a way that your body can not get rid off. This new “amyloid protein” begins sticking to various organs in your body. In my case, it attacked my heart, and in about six months’ time, I went from a very normal existence with a normal chest x-ray and a pretty normal echocardiogram to being in full heart failure.”
Suddenly, at 47 years old, he was thrust into the unfamiliar—and humbling—position of being a patient. As his health declined, he began chemotherapy, but it had to be carefully dosed due to his weakened heart. In August 2020, he suffered a perforated colon and sepsis, requiring emergency surgery. Still, he continued to work, seeing patients, even as walking room-to-room in his office left him winded and gasping through a Covid-era face mask. By March 2021, he was draining three liters of fluid from his lungs every other day just to breathe.
“In March 2021, my cardiologist said that I had a window where maybe transplant was a good opportunity,” he says. “So, I went through the transplant process, and I think it was mid-May when I was approved and put on the list.”
Up until 2018, heart transplantation for patients with amyloidosis wasn’t even an option. But due to advancements in treatment, Dr. Lacroix became the first known amyloidosis patient to receive a heart transplant at UNC-Chapel Hill. His wait on the transplant list wasn’t long. After being hospitalized in July 2021 with a balloon pump to increase his transplant priority, he received the call on his daughter’s birthday.
“This year she’ll be 27, and I kind of kid around with her that now I’m the younger version of her,” he says, smiling.
His transplant on July 22, 2021, marked the beginning of a long and difficult recovery. More than two months in the hospital followed, including physical rehab to relearn how to walk. “I lost 20 to 25 pounds of muscle in just eight days of lying in bed,” he recalls.
Emotionally and spiritually, Dr. Lacroix had tried to prepare for the transplant. “I spent a lot of time before the transplant just trying to go ahead and make peace with the fact that me getting a heart and having a chance at a longer life meant that someone else’s life would be cut short.”
Today, nearly four years later, Dr. Lacroix is back at work, not just as a doctor—but as someone who truly understands what it means to be a patient. The experience has deepened his compassion and changed the way he practices medicine.
“It’s definitely changed my perspective,” he says. “I have a new appreciation for people who are going through difficult times in their medical processes, whether that’s cancer treatment, some sort of long rehab stay, or different things like that. It’s made me a much more empathetic and sympathetic physician when dealing with patients. I have a better understanding of not just all the medical stuff, but about what recovery is like and what it does to you as a person.”
He credits his recovery not just to excellent medical care, but to his faith, family, and the unwavering support of his team at UNC. He often reflects on the comment from a nurse after his transplant: “You have a Jaguar for a heart.”
“It just made me feel so good that I had this powerhouse to replace this huge part of me,” he says. “I remember my wife would take me to work when I was in heart failure and I would see people walking on the sidewalk, and I just had this yearning, wishing I could do that again. So, hearing the words that I had a jaguar for a heart was such a relief, knowing that God had gifted me with a heart that would be able to take care of me probably even more than my original heart could do.”
In the year following his transplant, Dr. Lacroix discussed the process of connecting with his donor’s family but chose to focus on recovery instead.
“I was worried it would add stress and affect me and my recovery in a negative way,” he says. “Being a physician, I was more focused on that first year of new life and recovery—but, prior to my transplant, I had done a lot of praying for my donor’s family.”
Today, Dr. Lacroix no longer takes the little things for granted.
“For about 15 months of my life, I literally could not walk,” he says. “At the time, my youngest son was in little league, and I couldn’t even get on the bleachers to watch his games. Now, I’m just so appreciative of being able to walk outside, to attend a ballgame and sit in the bleachers, and to travel to see my kids who are spread across other parts of the state.”
As a physician and recipient, Dr. Lacroix encourages people to sign up as donors and not discount themselves based on their medical history.
“If you’re thinking about organ donation, or whether you or a family member should consider checking the box, I would say just think about how you want your loved one to be remembered,” he says. “To be a part of something that is greater than yourself or greater than your family is the ultimate sacrifice. I always come back to the bible verse, ‘There is no greater love than this—that a man should lay down his life for his friends.’ That’s why I have the utmost respect for my donor…he or she laid down their life, and now I’m able to continue in their footsteps and I owe them a great deal of gratitude and respect.”
75 or more lives can be saved and healed by one organ, eye, and tissue donor. Sign up today!
