Less than three years after winning his episode of Top Chef Amateurs, Saugerties resident Lorenzo Beronilla is facing another monumental challenge, one he seems determined to beat: Surviving and thriving after a heart transplant.
“Let’s just say I am no longer sick, so I am doing absolutely wonderfully,” said Beronilla during an emotional interview last week. “It’s been a couple months of a roller coaster of health and emotions.”
The roller coaster ride began last December, when Beronilla was traveling for work and began to have difficulty breathing.
“I’ve never experienced that before in my life, where I was so short of breath that I had to stop in my tracks, sit down wherever I was,” Beronilla said.“I think I leaned against a building, and I thought, is this like a serious asthma attack? I thought nothing else but asthma, because I had asthma when I was a kid, maybe four, but I’ve had allergies all through my life.”
Two months later, disembarking from a train, Beronilla began feeling worse.
“My body was completely different, as if I had gained weight on a train ride that lasted an hour and a half,” Beronilla said. “I was bloated, my stomach was extended, and then later that night, it started to move into my legs, and I know that’s a sign just from being, just from watching TV and the movies, I know that’s a sign of something bad happening. When I got in to see the doctor, he immediately said, ‘We need to admit you to the hospital: This is different’.”
Beronilla was first admitted to HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston, then moved to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, after learning that his heart was enlarged, and his ventricles extended and thin from pumping faster than usual to get oxygen to the rest of his body.
“That’s why I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “Everything was shutting down.”
On March 12, Beronilla was given an intra-aortic balloon pump to help support his heart, and one day later was placed on the United Network for Organ Sharing heart transplant waiting list.
“I did not think those words, ‘You’re a good candidate for a heart transfer,’” Beronilla said. “I thought he was just really going to tell me, “Make some arrangements.”
On March 29, Beronilla learned he had a match.
“When the nurse practitioner told me it did not register in my head, because an hour prior, I was talking to friends, and they have friends that waited a year, five months, still waiting, and then next thing you know, I’m told I’m having the operation that night.”
Though Beronilla is still at Westchester Medical, his recovery so far has been swift; he said within a few hours of his being closed up post-surgery, he was being revived.
“A couple hours after that, they took the intubator out of me, the tube out of my mouth, and I was literally talking at the end of the night,” Beronilla said. “I called my family later on that night and said, ‘I can’t believe I just had a heart transplant, and I’m talking to you.’”
Beronilla said he’s also talking to his new heart every day, fostering a connection he believes will last a long time. And he also doesn’t feel sick anymore.
“They’re just trying to even out all my levels, because I have to take all these anti-suppressants for anti-rejection so my organ doesn’t reject my body, and vice versa,” he said. “ It’s funny, you’re supposed to relax, but every 20 minutes, somebody comes in and gives you another test. But that’s fine, it’s fine with me, but that’s what’s been happening this whole week.”
Beronilla said if his prognosis remains positive, he could return home soon. When he does, he will be buoyed by the support of friends and strangers alike. Beronilla is both a celebrity chef and actor with over 50 credits on his IMDB page. On March 24, he took to social media to share his journey from Westchester Medical, and was overwhelmed by the response.
“I’ve never met these fans,” he said. “I might have seen them click a thumbs up or a heart on my Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, social media, but I’ve never spoken to them. And all of a sudden, I posted that I’m awake, and then you have 1,800 paragraphs talking to me about their story, about their father, their mom, their uncle, their son, their daughter, it happened to them, were just words of encouragement from strangers.”
A group of Beronilla’s friends have also started a GoFundMe to help support him as he recovers from his heart transplant. As of press time, he’s received $17,816 through 273 donations at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bj3z9n-help-with-medical-billls.
Beronilla said the response to his illness has helped him connect with people in ways he couldn’t have imagined before.
“I always thought the world was great, and I’ve had a wonderful career and wonderful people who support me, but now even more so,” he said. We all have our problems, we all have pain, we all have good days and bad days. But in the end, we’re generally good people. We’re just kids that had to grow up, you know?”
Beronilla is eager to get home, to get healthy, and get back to work. He’s also looking forward to enjoying little things that in the hospital can seem far away.
“My bucket list is growing,” Beronilla said. “I just want to walk on my grass with bare feet. Things that people take for granted.”
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