AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Back in 2004, Wayne Canty was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
His road to recovery was a journey. After years of wearing two heart assisting devices, three open heart surgeries, and miraculous heart and kidney transplant, Wayne is now wanting to help others with his foundation, Heart to Heart 911 Inc.

“When I was under anesthesia I had an epiphany at that time where God had placed me, to come out and open up a foundation. The goal of my foundation is really simple: it’s just to help people. I have a desire to help people purchase their medication and I know by being on the other side of that, I know how hard it is to get your medication paid for,” said Canty.

Canty’s foundation is teaming up with the Piedmont Augusta Foundation for their first annual fundraising event, happening at the Piedmont Heart Institute on February 18th.

“We are really excited to be partnering up with Wayne Canty for his Heart to Heart event, he came to us with a desire to help support patient medication and pay for it in the community. It’s something that Piedmont Augusta Foundation we have a fund and a program to do that and he wanted to make sure that we had enough resources for people in the community so they didn’t have to make choices between something and their medication,” said President of the Piedmont Augusta Foundation, Laurie Ott.

Canty hope’s people will come out and support his cause, and he also hopes they learn something as well.

“We have an excellent speaker, my physician, my cardiologist, the guy that I love,” said Canty.

“Dr. Darshak Karia, who actually is in charge of our congestive heart failure program here at Piedmont Augusta, and we’re excited for folks to hear Dr. Karia, to learn about what congestive heart failure is and to learn about how to take better care of their hearts and what programs are offered here in the community,” said Ott.

For the event, Canty’s goal is to raise $10,000 dollars.

“People in our community should have access to medications, we want to make sure that they have that and we’re delighted that Mr. Canty has dedicated the proceeds from this first event to helping us do that at Piedmont Augusta Foundation,” said Ott.

In the end Canty just hopes his story will inspire others.

“We don’t have enough time here to discuss everything I went through. My mother passed away when I was in the hospital, I died on the gurney twice, came back to life, a total car wreck, look, I have a story,” said Canty.

“He’s probably one in a hundred million. I’ve really never met anyone like him who’s been through the procedures that he’s been through. He’s trusted a lot of folks with his heart, and the fact that he’s trusted our hospital with his heart, lets us know that his heart is in the right place,” said Ott.

“By partnering up with Piedmont, it opened the doors up for people that don’t have insurance that can get help and I want them to understand that there’s help they can get,” said Canty.

The Heart to Heart Fundraiser is on February 18th, at the Piedmont Heart Institute located at 1350 Walton Way, Augusta