A Hearty 3rd Anniversary

At 5:15 p.m. three years ago today, Donald L. Kaminski, crippled by degenerative heart disease and near death, was wheeled into a University of Michigan Hospital operating room tq undergo a heart transplant. "I'm feeling just perfect," Kaminski, now 41, said yesterday when he answered his office phone at the Madison Marine, a factory outlet boat sales and service at 41 West 11-Mile Rd., in Madison Heights, Mich. The fact is the former Alpena man who now lives in the Detroit suburb of Hazel Park has apparenüy been feeling just perfect ever since receiving the heart of Robert J. Pushman, 22, of Fenton, in a five-hour and six-minute operation on Dec. 2, 1968. A semi-invalid for more than two years prior to the transplant, Kaminski has been making up for lost time, hunting, fishing, flying airplanes and traveling around the state as a sales representa tive. However, sinee going into partnership with a man by the name of John Fauble to run the boat sales and service store for the Saf-T-Mate company of Cadillac, he has not been on the road as much. "I do that as a sideline now," he said of his traveling to sell health equipment manufactured by the Cadillac boat firm. "But I haven't let up on my hunting and fishing trips," he added. Each year since receiving his new heart, Kaminski, has gone deer hunting, and with the exception of this year, bagged his buck. He probably would have gotten his deer this year too, except for what he called "a bit of foolishnes.s." Last Friday he traveled to his favorite hunting spot near Fife Lake south of Traverse City where he spotted a small buck he believed to be about a fourpointer. "I raised my gun and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. I had forgotten to load the clip," he said. "Anyway, I shot a few partridges lier this year, and I'm going rabbit hunting this weekend," Kaminski added. Apparently even more enthused about fishing than hunting, the nation's second longest living heart transplant recipiënt said, "We got some nice chinooks off Alpena about four, weeks ago. We caught some coho salmón too, but I gave them away because chinooks are better eating." Otherwise, he said, "I am -working, working, working, getting ready for the boat show at the Detroit Armory on Jan. 25. We've got 3,000 square feet of space," he added enthustiastically. Kaminski said he and his partner had sold 62 boats with trailers in the last two months, which he believes is a record for that length of time for a Michigan boat store. in addition to all this, he is constantly on the go, helping to raise money for the Heart Fund and other charitable causes. Btit when.he entered University Hospital on Sept. 27, 1968, more than two years after his first heart attack, Kaminski was a far different man. He was a thiii, emaciated man on his death bed, only able to move with great effort. His heart was pumping less than a quart of blooci a minute compared with a normal, heaJtKy heart which pumps more than six quarts of blood through the circulatory system in that length of time when a persen is at rest. Fe was given only a few months io live, with a heart transplant as the last resort. But a potential donor didn't becotee avaüable until Pushman, a senior at Central Michigan University and a Star athlete, ■ as critically mivMA in an automobile aceJde.it new FUn + fee. 1, cL that year The Pushman youth was tra .rred to Univenity Hospital with criticai ,iead injuues and at 5:12 p.m. three years ago totiay was pronounced clinically dead. Three minutes later, a transnl? ït team headed by Dr. Donald R. KMvtfcen U M associate professor of surgery, t gan removing the hëart of the Fenton yiiiiÜj for transfer into Kaminski's body. The heart recipient's recovery was speedy. The second day af ter the operatrn he was out of bed and taking his first steps. Four days later he began taking his own showers and was sitting up in bed painting landscapes. When he wa.i discharged on Feb. 7, 1969, he walked briskly to his press conference and told reporters he was able to run upsta;ir-, something he hadn't been able to do for several years. During the first two years after the operatien, Kaminski had to return to University Hospital at relatively frequer.i intervals for check-ups. Yesterdav, he said, "I haven't been in for a check-up since July." t thai time he traveled to Madison, Wis., where Dr. Kahn is now head of thoiacic surgery at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. "I am now scheduled for only two check-ups a year, ons at Madison and the other in Ann Arbor at University Hospital," he said. Vhen Kaminski was discharged from University Hospital following the transplant, he told reporters that doctors said he coulc'. expect tö live to be 70. It looks like hc is going to make it.