Playing it once again, from the heart

JP resident Richard Gates, a musician and heart-transplant recipient, is making an 800-mile ride from Ohio to Boston to raise awareness about the importance of organ donations. (Barbara Gates)

If there's one snippet of the pop lexicon that musician Richard Gates of Jamaica Plain can relate to, it's Tom Petty's 1981 line "The waiting is the hardest part."

For Gates, 57, a bass player, occasional teacher at the Berklee College of Music, and accompanist to the likes of Suzanne Vega and Patty Larkin, the wait took four years and brought him a new heart.

A running enthusiast who had completed 12 marathons, Gates was out jogging one morning in 2000 when he had trouble breathing.

His doctor ran some tests and suspected a heart attack. At Brigham and Women's Hospital, he got the diagnosis - cardiomyopathy, a deterioration of the muscular tissue of the heart - and was told he likely had five or six years to live.

Gates was told that the medical team would do the best it could with medication, but that he would not be a candidate for a heart transplant until he could no longer function outside of the hospital.

"That was everything that I learned in about a half-hour," said Gates. He proceeded to get his healthcare proxy and will in order.

In 2001, Gates had a defibrillator surgically implanted in his chest to work as a pacemaker in case his heart went into arrhythmia. When Dr. Michael Sweeney, the surgeon who performed the procedure, learned he was a musician, "he asked me to bring in my bass and put it on so he could implant it away from the guitar strap," said Gates. " 'You have to get out there and keep playing,' he told me."

Which Gates did until late 2003, when his health began to decline. In February 2004, he checked into the hospital. "I have to admit, I always had a positive attitude and thought I would be one of the lucky people who would get a transplant," said Gates. "But I also knew that despite my outlook there was a chance that I could die while waiting."

Of the 6,210 people waiting nationwide for a heart transplant in 2004, Gates was one of the lucky 2,015: That March, he got his new heart. Even then, some scary moments followed.

For the first several months he had weekly biopsies to ensure that the heart was being accepted. The day before a gig in New Jersey with singer/songwriter Kristin Cifelli, he learned that a test revealed his body was rejecting the heart.

"He had to drive all the way back to Boston for some drugs, and then drove all the way back down to play our gig," said Cifelli. "Ironically, Richard has the biggest heart on the planet. He is so appreciative of every single note of music that he gets to play."

Gates has much to be grateful for, including the friends and fellow musicians who held a series of benefit concerts in 2001 - they called the events "Cause Duct Tape Won't Do" - to raise money for his expenses. Given the precarious nature of a musician's income, the knowledge that he had a bit of a cushion was a great relief to him.

As he awaited a transplant, he was also greatly inspired when two women he'd never met before, both heart-transplant recipients, paid him visits.

"It was extremely beneficial for me," said Gates, "to see these individuals in street clothes and talking about their life."

Their example was part of the inspiration for Gates's own campaign to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation, something he calls the "Tour de Second Chance," an 800-mile bicycle ride from Ohio, where he grew up, to Boston. A key component: visiting those on transplant waiting lists, as others did for him.

He has already completed the first phase of the tour, averaging 66 miles daily from July 29 through Aug. 4. He launched the final leg on Monday, and expects to reach Boston by next weekend.

"Richard's experience is inspirational," said John Dodge, a childhood friend who works for KBPS-FM, a public radio station in Portland, Ore. "Eight months after his operation, Richard's example of courage helped inspire his two best friends, myself and Paul Yeskel, to go through the kidney transplant process. Paul was the recipient, I was the donor."

For more on Richard Gates, including video of his ride and a journal about his experiences, visit tourdesecondchance.com.

Susan Chaityn Lebovits can be reached at Lebovits@globe.com.