Two strangers who got heart transplants on the same day and recovered in adjacent rooms are now engaged to be married more than seven years later.
"All of the things that fell into place for us to be together are wild," Taylor Givens, 24, told "Today." "Everything has happened exactly as it needed to happen."
Her fiance, 30-year-old Collin Kobelja, could not agree more.
"We have been very lucky together," he added. "It all lined up."
Givens went into heart failure at age 17 after a common cold virus attacked her heart in a rare complication and caused cardiomyopathy, which damaged the heart tissue and caused her heart to become enlarged, according to "Today."
Kobelja, on the other hand, was born with a bad heart and had already had a transplant as a toddler and had been healthy and active since then. At age 22, however, the donor heart began to fail and he found himself in need of another transplant.
On June 9, 2011, both received new hearts and briefly met during their recovery, but it would be another five years until they reconnected at the hospital where the transplants took place and began dating. Kobelja was at the hospital after having had a third transplant (the second was rejected) to thank the transplant team, and Givens was there having her tonsils out, "Today" reported.
They have dated ever since, even through a bout with lymphoma that led to Givens needing chemotherapy treatments. She is now in remission and the couple plans to wed soon, "Today" reported.
They hope their story convinces others that organ donation is important.
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