INDIANAPOLIS — It was all smiles and hugs Thursday at IU Health University Hospital when Morten Pedersen and his wife Beth walked through the doors.
It’s not the first time they’ve come back to Indianapolis. They return from their home in Salt Lake City every once in a while for checkups, and to catch up with the doctors who saved his life.
Their story started back in 2020, when Morten and his wife Beth lived a much more active lifestyle out in Utah.
“We were both very outdoorsy,” Pedersen says. “Very active outside, hiking, skiing, cycling, swimming, you name it.”
He’ll tell you he was an “avid” cyclist and would bike hundreds of miles a day. Until October 2020, when he crashed his bike into a boulder at high speed. The crash caused internal bleeding, and Morten had to go to the hospital, where his doctors had few solutions.
“It was… surreal,” recounts Beth Pedersen. “His life was, his life was in danger. Our future was completely uncertain.”
Morten’s doctors eventually landed on a multiple organ transplant that would get him a whole new intestinal system. IU Health is one of only a handful of hospitals in the United States that can perform that procedure.
“Our choices, through circumstances, research, faith if you can call it that, landed us here in Indiana,” says Morten.
Morten took a Life Flight helicopter and landed in Indianapolis on Nov. 14. But it took another 8 months for his doctors to find the right organs for his surgery.
“I was in sort of a coma state,” Morten remembers. “I was at least on life support if you can call it that, and I was also on a lot of medication, so I think I was just sort of following along.”
Beth made most of the decisions during that time and acted as Morten’s full-time nurse.
“Stressful of course, scary to some degree,” she says about that period. “But also to some degree, you have to believe that you’re going to come out on the other side of this.”
Morten got healthy enough to be discharged, and they stayed in Indianapolis while they waited. They even got tickets to the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 that May.
Then in June of 2021, the right donors came through. Morten had his procedure.
“We were presented with a situation, my life-threatening situation at the time, and then we were given that option of a second chance at life you could say through this transplant,” he says. “The stomach, the pancreas, the small intestine, large intestine and liver. I also got a spleen for good measure.”
Since the procedure, he’s regained his health, and he’s back on his bike with hopes to return to competitive cycling. Beth and Morten both say the ordeal has taught them to appreciate what they have.
“Become resilient. You just keep waking up every day and keep working toward this end goal,” Beth says with some emotion. “If anyone had told me at that time, that in 4 years on that date, you’d be here, speaking to the team and telling our story under these circumstances, I don’t think I could have fathomed it.”
“Of course, I’m still here,” Morten reflects. “I can wake up every morning, able to see her. I’m good.”
There is always a need for qualified donors to come forward and offer to help patients like Morten. If you’d like to sign up, visit the Indiana Donor Network.
