GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A people person, Rich DeVos first met longtime friend and cardiologist Dr. Richard McNamara in the emergency room.
Suffering from heart disease, the billionaire co-founder of Amway was having a heart attack, his second.
"You spend hours and hours talking about living and dying," Dr. McNamara said. "Pretty special relationship."
The connection made during the near-death event proved one of many that paved the way for the Richard DeVos Heart and Lung Transplant Center, made possible by a significant donation from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, which announced its planned closure on Wednesday after donating more than $1.1B, largely supporting the Grand Rapids area.
"Whether it's a lung or a heart or kidneys, [Rich and Helen] knew what a transplant meant, and it meant life again," Dr. McNamara said.
In the mid-90s, Dr. McNamara and heart surgeon Dr. Luis Tomatis began to calling transplant centers in the United States on behalf of DeVos, saying they had a candidate in his sixties with a large right ventricle, a long history of heart surgeries, and a rare blood type, AB positive.
They did not reveal his name or net worth, per standard procedure.
"He was planning on building a sailboat so he could travel around the world," said Dr. McNamara, who made the calls without DeVos' knowledge. "I was planning on him not surviving for another couple of months."
The surgery carried a high risk of death that no American surgeon wanted to accept, but UK-based surgeon Sir Dr. Magdi Yacoub took a chance on DeVos, as the businessman took a chance on him and his world-class skill.
"The beginning of a miracle," Dr. McNamara said. "They both decided that each was up to the task."
Withering in a London hotel room as he waited for a potential match, DeVos, now 71, stared down death.
Five months later, a 39-year-old woman in need of a heart and lung transplant saved his life with a heart that "would have gone into the wastebasket," per Dr. McNamara, largely due to an enlarged right ventricle, a perfect fit for DeVos.
The surgery was a success.
While recovering at Harefield Hospital, DeVos met the woman whose heart he now depended on in what became a "deeply moving" and "spiritual" event: "You can hardly write this story," Dr. McNamara said. "It's almost a novel."
When he returned to the United States, the businessman stayed true to form, using the connections he made at Harefield to eventually recruit medical staff to the Richard DeVos Heart and Lung Transplant Center, which he also financially supported through the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation.
"In times when there is no hope, maybe there is hope," said cardiologist Dr. Michael Dickinson, the first-ever medical director at the transplant center, put in charge of developing the program: "We realized that we had to build an entire infrastructure."
In 2010, the center performed its first transplant within a year of receiving a certificate of need, also with a surgeon from DeVos' London procedure, Dr. Asghar Khaghani, on the team.
"They just allowed us to dream big," Dr. McNamara said. "Rich DeVos is not someone that loses faith easily."
By 2022, the program averaged 21 heart and 43 lung transplants per year. On Tuesday, April 30, it performed its 216th heart transplant.
"That was the vision and certainly the fingerprints of Rich and Helen," Dr. McNamara said. "What's the healthcare that you would want for your family? You'd want to have all of this."
