Heart Recipient Jessica Melore Meets Teen Donor's Family for First Time

Dec. 30, 2010 — -- Eleven years ago, Jessica Melore was a happy, healthy 16 year-old, and even the co-captain of her high school tennis team. But everything changed in one moment.

At a family dinner one night in 1998, Melore suddenly collapsed. What was not immediately clear was that she had suffered a heart attack so massive, doctors would not expect her to live.

"We were in shock that this could possibly be happening," said Ellen Melore, Jessica's mom, with tears in her eyes. "It's just a nightmare -- it's not really happening."

Jessica Melore was rushed to the hospital.

"I looked up at him and I said, 'Am I going to die?'" Melore said, recalling a conversation with her doctor. "He just looked at me and didn't say anything, and that was probably the scariest moment."

Her lungs began filling with liquid -- she was starting to crash. Her doctors did not expect her to live through the night. A priest administered last rites.

"I just pictured her room and her prom dress hanging up and everything and [thought], 'How -- how could this be happening?'" Ellen Melore said.

A heart transplant was Melore's only hope. Doctors tried for days to stabilize her and an infection in her leg led forced its amputation. The family waited, but still no heart was available.

"From day to day, minute to minute, we didn't know what was gonna happen," said Thomas Melore, Jessica's father.

But then, an experimental heart pump made Jessica a walking medical miracle. It saved her life.

Diane Sawyer interviewed Melore in April of 1999 on "Good Morning America." By then, she had been living on the pump for seven months. Sawyer asked her if she could walk and go to school.

"Well, I believe that you create your own limitations, so ... anything can take place in some way, shape, or form," Melore said.