Jumping For Julie: Traveling Trampoline Helping To Raise Awareness About Organ Donation

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A heart transplant patient, who is receiving treatment at Allegheny General Hospital, is helping to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.

Julie Logue was diagnosed with enlargement of the heart when she was just 14-years-old. A decade later, she had a heart attack. And in 2009, she received her first heart transplant. But her body rejected it, and now she is waiting for another heart.

"She's facing now, again, heart failure symptoms and decreasing heart function related to the rejection," says Dr. Maria Patarroyo, of Allegheny General Hospital.

During one of Logue's appointments, she made an unusual discovery at the hospital: a tiny trampoline.

"I had seen some staff here at Allegheny [General] that had jumped on a trampoline that they had found in a restroom here," says Logue. "I thought, well, maybe someday they can bring that to [my] floor just for patients [who] are waiting [for transplants]."

She and her medical team decided to try it out. And so, Jump for Julie was born. Since that day, they've taken the trampoline all over the country to help raise awareness about people like Logue: patients in need of a transplant.

"It's very heartwarming. I'm in a great place just to know that… they're working hard… just have my best interests [at heart]," says Logue.

There's a Jump for Julie event going on in her hometown of Franklin, Venango County, on Sunday, April 15. The goal is to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation, and to get more people to sign up to be organ donors.

"When you go to heaven, you don't take any of those things," says Dr. Patarroyo. "It can help a lot of people."

For more information in Jump for Julie, visit their Facebook page here.