Faces of the Games
DARRYL BARKLEY, 39
Leeds, Alabama
Darryl Barkley may not be a former pro basketball player/talk show host like his big brother Charles Barkley, but this accomplished athlete is the best rebounder in the family. As a middle child born with cardiomyopathy, a serious disease of the heart, he and his family knew his prognosis was grim from birth. In fact, he was not expected to live past childhood. But he defied predictions and, by 1998, was a married father with a five year-old daughter, despite his increasingly serious condition which had caused him to suffer a stroke and three heart attacks.
As his health deteriorated, he was forced to sleep upright in a recliner chair due to the fluid build-up in his chest, and simple tasks such as showering or playing with his daughter required many stops for rest. Eventually his name was put on the waiting list for a new heart. On March 18, 2003, after being told he had less than twenty-four hours to live, he received a heart transplant. Doctors who removed his deteriorated organ described it as “one big, sloppy wet” mess. Today Darryl is an entirely new man. He eats healthy foods, is an avid runner and no longer tips the scales at nearly three hundred pounds. At a trim 213, with a goal weight of 203, Darryl enjoys playing catch with his daughter, volunteering at the Y.M.C.A. and training for the National Kidney Foundation's 2006 U.S. Transplant Games, which he will attend this June in Louisville.
