Heart transplant survivor dies just a few hours after giving birth

After giving birth to her baby girl, Megan Moss Johnson got to hold her daughter in her arms, feed her and burp her.

It was a celebration of new life for Johnson, who received a heart transplant seven years ago, and her husband, Christian music artist Nathan Johnson.

But the 31-year-old mother experienced complications and died just eight hours later of unspecified causes.

Johnson had a smooth delivery and got to greet daughter Eilee Kate just like any other mom, said her husband’s friend and Christian singer Josh Wilson.
“Nathan is devastated,” Wilson wrote on a GoFundMe page that he set up for the family. “There are no words for this, so I won’t really say much more. Here is what I know. Nathan is a wonderful man and an amazing father. He loves his daughter dearly. ”

Support quickly poured in for Nathan Johnson, and his daughter. As of Friday afternoon, more than $350,000 had been donated to help pay for food and bills.

“She loved people, loved her husband so much. She also had a great faith in Jesus,” Wilson told CNN of Megan Moss Johnson. “The sadness and the grief is very real, but we still feel that there is hope.”

When she was 15, the Missouri native contracted a virus that led to myocarditis, a potentially fatal heart disease marked by inflammation of the heart. She needed a heart transplant at 23 because of later complications, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.