Faces of the Games
ABBY VAN NORTWICK, 20
Quantico, Virginia
Although Abby Van Nortwick likes to be thought of as a normal 20-year-old, her life so far has been anything but that. When she was eight, a virus attacked her heart, causing this bright and active third grader to be bedridden. She was living in Japan at the time where her Dad, a Marine Staff Sergeant, was stationed. Her condition worsened and she was airlifted from Japan and flown to Denver, where doctors performed a heart transplant, her only hope for survival. Within two months of the transplant, Abby went skiing. She attributes her newfound ability to participate in physical activities to her new heart, “the bomber.” A World Transplant Games participant, Abby also attended the National Kidney Foundation U.S. Transplant Games where she won four gold medals in swimming and received the American Society of Transplant Physicians Award. As a high school senior she swam competitively for the Quantico Sharks, a marine base swim team. She also shows horses and skis. Currently, Abby is away in college at Michigan. “I think the whole experience taught me that transplant recipients can do anything. Nothing can hold us back,” she says.
Abby doesn’t talk much about her surgery unless she is speaking out formally on behalf of organ donation at schools or other community events. In fact, most people don’t know that Abby has a heart transplant, which is fine with Abby. “Usually my teachers and friends don’t know. Then they will hear me give a speech at school or see an article about my speaking out for organ donation and say, “Wow. You never would have known you had a heart transplant. Then the friendship goes on as it always has because they never had a chance to treat me differently or special,” she says. Abby will be attending the National Kidney Foundation 2006 U.S. Transplant Games where she hopes to bring home more gold in swimming.
