Print edition: 
Jeremy Gant is in for the fight of his life.
Thursday, doctors at the Kansas Heart Hospital told the sophomore golfer at Newman University that in order to live, he would need a heart transplant to fix a previously undetected birth defect.
Gant, 19, and his family were still in Wichita on Thursday afternoon when they heard the news but were getting ready to head to St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., where Gant will be put on a transplant list and undergo two or three days of testing and, hopefully, get a new heart.
“He has to have a heart transplant, it’s his only hope,” said Lisa Gant, Jeremy’s mother. “It’s just horrible ... he’s our only child. We think that he will be high on the donor list because of his age, but there’s so much unknown.”
Jeremy went home to Chanute last Friday and after experiencing a heightened pulse rate and shortness of breath, went in for x-rays.
Doctors discovered he had an enlarged heart and recommended he see specialists in Wichita. At the Kansas Heart Hospital, doctors discovered a leaky heart valve and planned surgery Thursday morning.
But the heart had deteriorated to the extent that surgery was no longer an option.
Newman men’s golf coach Kent Notestine, a former club pro in Chanute, said he has known Jeremy since he was 4 years old.
“He is as good a young man as they come, the type that you would be proud as could be that he was - your grandson, son, nephew, whatever,” Notestine said. “This whole thing has really just got us all down in the dumps and we’re praying that he can get on a transplant list and pull out of all this.”
Lisa and her husband, Cecil, said their family has been overwhelmed by the support from the Newman community and their hometown over the past three days.
Thursday’s news, however, was still sinking in as the family prepared to set out for Kansas City. There is a possibility that Jeremy could be sent home to Chanute with a defibrillator and a pager to alert him when a new heart became available.
“We really want to let people know how much we appreciate all the prayers and the support that we’ve received,” Lisa said. “We wish they did transplants here in Wichita because being around his friends and having our support system around us has kept Jeremy in good spirits.
“Now, we just don’t know what the future holds. We don’t know what it’ll be like in Kansas City and how he’ll be able to recover. He’s such a good kid and we just want him to get better. I just want my son to be OK.”
