Searching...

No results found. Please try modifying your search.

A New Heart and a New Life for Robb

My husband Robb Olds, 35, is very ill. After years of dealing with progressive cardiomyopathy, a heart transplant is the only hope for long-term survival. Robb is one of the most determined and supportive people you will ever meet. He is a loving husband and a wonderful father to our young son. To know Robb is to know someone with unwavering confidence and a healthy sense of humor that he shares equally with everyone he knows. He has brought strength to others his whole life and now needs strength for himself and our family. The cost of a transplant can be overwhelming and your help will make a difference.

Updates (8)

February 7, 2025

7 years, I can hardly believe it has been 7 full years since I was given an unbelievable gift. National heart transplant statistics and survival improve everyday, but the numbers are still sobering. 85-90% of heart transplant patients survive a year, 65-75% survive 5 years, 50-60% survive 10 years and only 20-25% survive 20 years. I am extraordinarily lucky to not only be on my way to 10 years, but to also have continued fortune with my overall heart health along the way.I am grateful, but also carry the reality that someone had to die so I could live. Another human being, a man in his 30’s whom I almost know nothing about, died and made the most charitable and selfless decision possible - the choice to donate his organs to others in need. 7 people including me, lived because that man died. Their gift was more time, something that is virtually impossible to acquire in this world. Time is limited, fleeting and comes at a cost.The older I get, which is a gift in of itself, the more I realize that everything in life has trade-offs. But gifts of pure positivity, altruism and love multiply. A single man dies and 7 lives are saved for the better and it ripples from there. Because I lived, I had another wonderful gift in the form of a daughter (now 3) and thanks to modern medicine developments, we were able to prevent her from inheriting my heart disease. I have gotten to see my son grow to now be 11 and be one of the most caring, intelligent and thoughtful people I have ever known. I received the opportunity to continue life with my wonderful wife and to build our lives together. I have had the opportunity to see my friends and family grow into their lives and see one of my brothers get married and the other grow into a man. All of this only happened for me and 6 others, because another man died. I don’t know the other recipients (it is confidential information), but I can imagine that they and those around them are equally thankful.Life is weird, I have never been an optimist and certainly my disposition defaults to preparing for the worst. But I will also be the first to admit that the good outweighs the bad and truly; acts of love, charity, selflessness and positivity multiply far faster than any bad ever could.I wish everyone a safe, happy and love filled future. Here is to the next 7 years together and many more!With Love,Robb (Frankenstein) Olds

February 7, 2021

1,577,847.6 minutes. I know it is cliché to quote Rent; but that is how much I have benefited from another’s death, his and his family’s gift. I would like to say I made the best of it and that I am confident they would be proud of me and the things I accomplished. I wish I could talk of the great things that happened the last few years and use them as inspiration to others on why the gift of life is such a precious and wonderful thing that leads to other amazing instances of life. However, I can only say that as I reflect I lower my head understanding that not enough was done to honor him.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t waste the years or time by any means (at least not in the simplest ways: I did not fall into drug addition, drinking or smoking – obvious things that would be a clear violation of the transplant code). But today I find myself asking, was it enough? Am I worth it? What will be worth it?

With each day that goes by I find myself wondering more frequently if the fleeting time I spend each and every day is done with enough love, happiness and purpose. As a father I obsess over the little interactions, criticizing my every action and lamenting those moments when I lost my patience or worse, my temper. As a husband I regret all of those small interactions where it would have been much easier to prioritize my adoration instead of carrying over whatever curse I enabled the outside world to inflict upon me that day. As a person, I have never been more confident that I have not done enough for others – only recognizing my privilege in my late 30’s and just now truly understanding how unequal things, simple taken-for-granted everyday things, really are. As a human, I added this all up in a column of pluses and minuses and the results were not pretty – 2020 was not a “banner year” for Robb.

Honestly it was a tough year for many people. I don’t need to spend time telling anyone reading this how bad things got this year; how bad they still are and how far we still need to come as individuals, as a nation and as people. What I will do is lay out what I am going to do and how I am going to take my regret, frustration and personal strengths and apply them now and moving forward.

Personally, I see power in simplicity, maybe it is because I tend to talk too much and am envious of those who can convey so much with so few words. Net, here is my attempt at two simple statements I am going to use beginning today as a guide to daily actions:

1. I will improve the lives of my son and wife, the lives of those who did/do not share my privilege and my own life – in that order.

2. I will not forget to be thankful, but I also will not accept that being thankful is a reason to stop moving forward – appreciation is profound, but secondary to progress.

Day One: today after I post this message I am going to go downstairs, tell my wife I love her and give my son a huge hug and join whatever they are doing. We are going to watch the Super Bowl, enjoy the day and I will find time to reflect with my son on the media we see compelling positive social change and how not long ago this wasn’t shared enough and how he and I can do more. Why we must always do more. Today I am thankful for my donor and his family, for the strength of my wife and her courage that drives our family forward, for my amazing son whose genuine kindness is reminder of how we should all be and for Help Hope Live for continuing to provide me and so many others a platform to make the gift of life an everyday act. I am thankful for my gift of life, but it is not enough and I will achieve more in my personal and professional life. Most importantly, I am thankful for the knowledge I gained through recognizing my privilege and the weight of that responsibility. I appreciate what I have, but now I need to help make sure those things are not exclusive to people who look like me in the future.

On to year 4. Take action, be thankful, keep going.

With love,

~Robb

Guestbook

February 7, 2025

Rob,

My heart goes out to you and your family. Literally!!!

Time is such a blessing. Make the most of it!

Bryan Bayles

Bryan Bayles

February 16, 2019

So happy for you Robb and inspired by your strenght

Matt Cheap

February 10, 2019

Rob - I had no idea you and your family were going though this. Stay strong and I pray you get through this and live a long, healthy life in the future. God Bless!

Jeff Schroeder