High school teacher and wrestling coach ‘thankful to be thriving’ after heart transplant

Heart transplant recipient Mark Holliday of Easley, South Carolina, returned to the hospital where he had lifesaving surgery to express his gratitude. “I'm thankful to be thriving. We have so much to be thankful for with what MUSC provides.”

Holliday spoke at the Medical University of South Carolina’s first ECMO reunion. ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is a form of life support only available at hospitals capable of performing the complex procedure. It involves a machine that helps the heart and lungs work.

The Blue Ridge High School teacher and wrestling coach was on ECMO after having a heart attack, being diagnosed with heart failure and learning he needed a heart transplant. He’d been flown to the MUSC Health Heart and Vascular Center, which has South Carolina’s only heart transplant program.

“I coded in the cardiovascular intensive care unit on a Monday night,” he said, referring to cardiac arrest. “Forty-five minutes, 23 rounds of CPR. And after all that stabilized, they did ECMO. And so that kept me alive,” he said.

“They would bring off the sedation. There were several days where I was completely off of it. But before the transplant, I had fluid build-up. And they said, ‘We got to put you back under to get your lungs cleared.’”

Finally, in March of 2023, a heart became available. Surgeon Lucas Witer, M.D., and his team performed the operation.

Three years later, Holliday was happy to meet others who had been on ECMO at the place where his ECMO and heart teams worked together to save his life. “Talking to people who have had transplants here compared to other places – and I'm not throwing shade on the other hospitals – there seems to be more of a sound and fruitful recovery with less complications than I've seen with people who had surgery elsewhere.”