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MURRAY — It's a club that nobody would want to join.
But once they're in, they are grateful it exists.
It's called the Zipper Club. Members meet twice a month, have gone through open-heart surgery and have a zipper-like scar on their chest.
"I had about a 6 percent chance (of survival), but then had some very determined doctors who slowly brought me back," said Brent Haupt, a former heart patient at Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute.
Chances were similarly slim for Jake Gilbert.
"They gave me about a 15 percent chance to live, three weeks," he said.
The two men both faced their own mortality after experiencing heart failure, but neither wanted to be a statistic.
"I was still in the hospital waiting for my donor and he (Jake) had just received his LVAD," Haupt said.
An LVAD stands for left ventricular assist device. It's a mechanical pump that is implanted inside a person's chest to help a weakened heart pump blood.
The first time Haupt met Gilbert, they were just doors apart in the hospital. Haupt decided to strike up a conversation.
"I could see that he was hurting, so over the course of a few days we visited each other and we walked together and he got stronger and so we helped each other get stronger," Haupt said.
These visits meant the world to Gilbert.
"That feeling is unlike any other feeling, and I felt the hopelessness, the dark spot that was in my life. Brent reinstalled that hope," he said.
A friendship and bond were formed. They continued their friendship while attending the Zipper Club.
"This group helps people stay healthy because health goes beyond physical. It goes into emotional and psychological health as well," said Kismet Rasmusson, who is a nurse practitioner at Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute.
Haupt, who is the glue of this group, sends email reminders and finds experts to address the group. He opened more than just his heart: he opened his home. When Gilbert, who lives in Idaho Falls, needed to stay close to the hospital, Haupt welcomed him in.
That feeling is unlike any other feeling, and I felt the hopelessness, the dark spot that was in my life. Brent reinstalled that hope.
–Brent Haupt, heart patient
But it took some convincing to get caregivers to release one critically ill patient to another critically ill patient.
"I said, 'Who better? Because I lived the program and would make sure that he got to the hospital and clinic when he needs to,'" Haupt said.
Haupt also opened his business and gave Gilbert a job.
Both Gilbert and Haupt have new hearts now, but continue to meet with the Zipper Club and other heart patients, both feeling a need to give back.
Gilbert will go home soon to his Idaho family, but will forever be grateful for his heart family.
"There's a beat in my heart that beats for them and a beat that beats for my family," he said.
Gilbert said he plans to continue helping other heart patients in Idaho Falls.
Intermountain Healthcare plans to partner with two national support group organizations and launch a pilot program in St. George.
