BELL COUNTY, Texas — James Shackleford has a lot of stories about the scars on his body. Some of those stories include losing his left arm, multiple surgeries, losing nearly 200 pounds and his life ticker almost going out.
"It's just amazing that I'm still here, we'll put it that way," said Shackleford.
Shackleford told 6 News that one time his heartrate got up to 400 beats per minute, with doctors not knowing how he was still stable. He has been told by numerous doctors that he shouldn't be alive today. After 20 years of having heart issues, doctors determined he needed a transplant.
"Scott & White had to try and get me in every hospital that is around here that did transplants back then. None of them would take me," Shackleford said.
He was so fragile and so sick that no one wanted to operate on him as they figured he wouldn't make it out of the operating room.
But Baylor Scott & White Medical Center - Temple had been trying to add transplants to their services for some time back then. The hospital chose to take a chance on Shackleford as their first heart transplant patient of their program in 2010.
"If they hadn't have chosen him, then like I said, he wouldn't have been here," said Malinda Shackleford, James' wife.
It took a month to find his perfect match, but it was worth the wait.
Eleven years later and he is still kicking it, but now he has a stricter diet, daily medicine regiment, a lot of doctor visits and a different perspective of life.
"Don't take nothing for granted because you don't know what's going to happen that next moment," James added.
The gift of life through organ donation has given him time he didn't think he would have with his wife, kids and grandkids. He was also given the privilege to open up new avenues for a hospital and future patients.
"For them to let him be the first, not knowing if he was even going to make it off the table, it was an honor," said Malinda.
Shackleford's heart is still beating as he battles other health issues, like kidney failure, but he's choosing not to surrender and treating life like the precious gift it is.
"Anybody that's able to get a heart, or a kidney, whatever in transplant -- if you is able to get it, try and take care of it; Don't just throw it away like the first time around," said James.