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Everything's Coming Up Roses

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By JAN HOLLINGSWORTH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 12, 2008

Updated: 01/10/2008 06:14 pm

THONOTOSASSA - When it comes to matters of the heart, Bill Ismer is something of an expert: The retired lawman has had two.

It is the second one that he wears on his sleeve.

"When I received my new heart, I gave it away," said Ismer, whose story about love, life and transplants won him a place in the 2008 Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif.

"Any time we're faced with death, we have time to revisit our lives. That's what I think this was about," he said. "It was time to get my priorities in order."

"This" was a heart attack at the age of 54 that landed Ismer in Tampa General Hospital, where he spent most of 1999 waiting for a new heart - and falling in love with one of his nurses.

In spring 2000, six months after his heart transplant, Ismer married the nurse who held his hand "and never let go."

It was Debbie Ismer who urged her husband last year to enter an essay contest sponsored by Astellas Pharma US, maker of a widely used drug that prevents patients' bodies from rejecting transplanted organs.

His entry recounted "our story," he said. "How we met, how Debbie has a healing touch, how we've been blessed."

Ismer was one of five transplant recipients to be awarded an all-expense-paid trip to Pasadena and a ride on the Life Takes Flight float sponsored by a network of transplant organizations.

"Every transplant recipient, like Bill, has a unique story about their journey - one that often includes a life-altering transformation," Astellas spokeswoman Maribeth Landwehr said.

The float carried 24 people, including transplant recipients, living donors, donor families and transplant candidates representing the millions of people touched by transplantation and donation.

Ismer is the first heart recipient to ride in the parade. He and his wife, who watched from the grandstand, wore eye-catching neon yellow ball caps supplied by Tampa General Hospital.

"I wanted something that stood out," he said. "These are two of a kind."

So are the Ismers, who donate countless hours visiting transplant patients and speaking to groups and organizations about the importance of organ donation.

"Bill and Debbie are very active volunteering with our program, called The Organizers. They educate the public about the importance of becoming organ donors," said Betsy Edwards, who oversees volunteers for LifeLink of Florida, an organ procurement organization.

According to LifeLink, there are more than 600 patients waiting for lifesaving heart, liver, lung, pancreas or kidney transplants in West Central Florida. Nearly 97,000 are on national waiting lists.

The parade, said Bill Ismer, was a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to promote organ donation. "You can't take it with you," he said.

Debbie Ismer, whose career with Tampa General spanned 30 years, has seen her share of patients die waiting for an organ.

"There aren't enough available," she said.

Many people are willing to donate their organs but may not pass the criteria. Others don't make their wishes known to the right people.

"It's not enough to say it's on your driver's license," she said. "Your family needs to know. Emergency room personnel won't take a chance at a problem" with the family.

The parade float, which featured replicas of hot air balloons bearing the photos of organ donors, was awarded a special judges' trophy. Family members of the donors walked beside the float, holding ropes tethered to the balloons.

"We can't say enough what a humbling, awesome experience it was," said Debbie Ismer, who believes her husband "is very, very blessed."

"Not all transplant patients do this well," she said. "The medications can accelerate cancer cells, damage kidneys."

Before his heart attack in 1998, shortly after he retired from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Bill Ismer spent his days at the beach - biking, running, snorkeling and living a life "that fulfilled only my worldly needs."

Before the transplant, he couldn't pick up a hammer, his wife said.

"Now he's rebuilt the whole house, rafted seven different rivers. He and a doctor friend won the Temple Terrace member-guest golf tourney in 2004. There isn't anything he can't do," she said.

He can even play the piano - an instrument he says he didn't play before the transplant.

"I go to sleep to a live concert, wake up to a live concert and all day in between," said Debbie Ismer, who gave him a piano when her guitar-playing husband started tickling the ivories with some conviction.

"I live to play all the time," he said.

Bill Ismer attributes his good fortune to the faith and purpose he discovered when given a second chance at life.

"I haven't had a rejection because I have a purpose, and that purpose is to serve the Lord and bring aid and comfort to others," he said.

The Ismers remain deeply rooted to Tampa General, where their life together began. Debbie Ismer continues to work part time as a nurse and also volunteers in the unit where patients wait for organs that may never come.

She continues to hold the hands of frightened patients - "the healing touch" her husband wrote about in his contest-winning essay - and Bill Ismer quietly plays the piano.

Periodically they board their 36-foot Diplomat RV and travel, spreading the gospel of organ donation.

"One donor can affect 70 people with ligaments, organs, bone and skin," she said.

Then there was the Rose Parade, the ride on the Donate Life float and a $5,000 trip to Pasadena that Bill Ismer described as "first class all the way."

It began the Friday before New Years when a limousine pulled up in front of the couple's home off Sam Allen Road. The sun had not risen, a circumstance the former Broward sheriff's captain found as ironic as the rest of his life.

"All the times I've escorted a limo and now our first chance to ride in one, it comes at 4:45 a.m.," he said.

ROSE PARADE

For photos and information on construction of the float, go to www.donatelifefloat.org

For video of the float in the parade, follow this link: http://ktla.trb.com/extras/ktla/roseparade2008/vid... and click on 2008 Rose Parade-Part 3. After the video loads you can fast forward to 12 minutes and 31 seconds when the Donate Life float appears. Make sure your sound is up to hear the commentary about the float

For information on how to become an organ donor visit www.lifelinkfound.org or telephone (800) 262-5775

Reporter Jan Hollingsworth can be reached at (813) 865-4436 or jhollingsworth@tampatrib.com.

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