Tyler Groom was preparing for the football season like hundreds of athletes across Kansas when, in June, he started feeling badly.  Doctors discovered a serious heart condition that required a transplant.  By early August his health had declined and doctors decided to perform another procedure.  Just as they were getting ready for the surgery, word came that a heart had been located for Groom, who is 17.

On August 19, doctors successfully transplanted the heart and on August 29 Tyler and his family met the media at Integris Hospital in Oklahoma City, where the surgery was performed.