Living with a heart full of gratitude

Most Queenslanders don’t often dwell on the ripple effects of organ donation, but for one woman, it is the reason she has been gifted three decades of a life that means everything to her.

In 1994, Karen Sander was just 34 years old, living in Greenbank. She had a two-year-old at home and had just given birth to her second child. While she had lived with shortness of breath for most of her life, she noticed a new ‘gurgling’ sound during her pregnancy and decided to get it checked out.

Following a chest x-ray and an echocardiograph, her life changed forever.

“The staff were looking at the results and were amazed at the size of my heart,” she recalls. Shortly after, she received a call from the Head of Cardiology with instructions to return to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital for testing on Monday morning.

Unaware of the gravity of her situation, she was diagnosed with severe dilated cardiomyopathy – a life-threatening condition where the heart’s main chambers enlarge and the muscle walls thin and weaken, reducing the heart’s ability to pump blood.

While discussing the diagnosis with specialists, she experienced her second ‘mini-stroke’.

“It was the same thing I’d experienced soon after my son Jayden was born, so I knew what it felt like,” she said.

“Next thing I know, I’m being put in an ambulance to the The Prince Charles Hospital and prepped for a heart transplant. I was like, ‘What?’ It just blew my mind.”

Karen spent the next four days undergoing preparation for a life-saving operation, officially joining the list of Queenslanders waiting for a heart. Her heart was so severely enlarged that without a transplant, her life expectancy was reduced to only a few months.

For the next 44 days, her life was on hold. In the days before the internet and smartphones, Karen sat at home with a pager, waiting for the beep that would change everything. Throughout the process, she encountered nothing but positivity from her medical team.
“It made me realise how much I loved my family and how much I wanted to keep living this life,” she said.

“I had complete faith in the team at The Prince Charles Hospital.

"I remember how they put it to me, saying that this whole thing was just some ‘basic plumbing’, which is true!”

It was that simple confidence that helped her through.

When the pager finally went off, her journey toward a new heart began.

When the operation was over, she took a deep breath – something she hadn’t been able to do freely since her school days.

“I’ve always been competitive,” she said. “I would run around the squash or a netball court, but I never had the breath to keep running around. It felt wonderful to take in a deep breath for the first time in 18 years.”

That surgery marked a milestone for the hospital as their 100th heart transplant recipient. Today, that same hospital is a leader in cardiac care, performing 16 heart transplants in 2025 alone.

The experience transformed Karen and her family into fierce supporters for organ donation.

“If it wasn’t for someone becoming an organ donor, I wouldn’t be here sitting here today,” she reflected. “I’ve been given over 30 years of life thanks to a complete stranger's generosity.”

She spent those ‘bonus years’ rediscovering her competitive streak, travelling the world to compete in swimming, squash, badminton, and bowling at the National, Asia/Pacific and World Transplant Games in countries like France, Thailand, and Japan.

She also spoke at her Garden Club recently to raise awareness. “I was thrust into a situation I didn’t expect, and I have the highest admiration for donors, and their families.

“They are simply wonderful.”

With 2,000 Australians on a waitlist for an organ transplant and 14,000 more on dialysis for kidney failure, there is an urgent need for Australians to register their donation decisions.

In 2025, there were 102 Queensland donors who saved the lives of 292 Australians. Of the deceased organ donors during that year, 50 per cent were from regional Queensland.
Recently released data for 2025 revealed that only 30 per cent of Queenslanders are registered as organ and tissue donors, down from 31 per cent the year before.

While Queensland’s population continues to grow rapidly, new registrations are not keeping pace with the number of people removing themselves from the register.

The Medical Director of DonateLife Queensland Dr Leo Nunnink said that teams across the state were committed to improving the donation program to support donor families and increase transplant opportunities.

“Organ donation provides those on a transplant waitlist the chance to live longer, healthier lives,” Dr Nunnink said.

“It’s heart-warming to see the number of families giving a second chance to others.”

Interested in registering to become a donor? It only takes a minute.

Visit donatelife.gov.au or register via Medicare. Once you’ve registered, make sure you tell your family your wishes.