Happy Life for Happy Wine Calle Ocho Business Owner Years After Kidney Transplant and Innovative COVID-19 Treatment

By: Ruelle Champion

Seven years after receiving a kidney transplant, JC Restrepo, 59, walks into his business every day with gratitude. Happy Wine Calle Ocho is a tapas and wine bar in Miami’s historic Little Havana neighborhood, and has become a staple in the community.

“Twenty-two years grinding, one day at a time, me and my wife,” Restrepo said.

After decades of hard work, the business owner began experiencing what he thought was normal exhaustion. But the underlying cause almost cost him and his wife, Joanna, everything they had built.

“I started feeling weak and I was losing focus,” Restrepo said. “My business started going down because I couldn’t make it from home to work.”

It took a Happy Wine Calle Ocho regular to push Restrepo to take his health more seriously.

“One of my customers told me, ‘You must come to the hospital on Monday and I need to check on you,” Restrepo recalled. “By that afternoon, I was at Jackson South Medical Center getting a catheter to start dialysis.”

At Jackson South, Restrepo learned he had chronic kidney disease.

“The doctors told me I was hours away from passing away,” he said.

Restrepo and his wife ultimately sold their Happy Wine Coconut Grove location to focus on his health and maintain Happy Wine Calle Ocho.

After years on dialysis, he met with the kidney transplant team at Miami Transplant Institute (MTI) – a meeting that would change the course of his life.

“When we get to know a patient, it’s not just a number or a case,” said Giselle Guerra, MD, medical director of the living kidney donor and robotic surgery programs at MTI. “It’s a special person that we’re trying to make a difference for.”

In April 2019, Restrepo got the call that the team had found a kidney for him. Gaetano Ciancio, MD, MTI’s chief academic officer and director of the kidney/kidney-pancreas transplant programs, was the lead surgeon on the successful surgery.

Restrepo’s recovery journey included a few bumps in the road, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Transplant patients were hit hard during the pandemic,” Dr. Guerra said. “The whole MTI team came together to come up with a solution.”

Restrepo caught COVID-19 in December 2020, before a vaccine was widely available. Being immunocompromised as a post-transplant patient added another layer of risk and he was hospitalized for 11 days.

“At that point in the pandemic, the plasma exchange treatment wasn’t being used for COVID-19,” said Adela Mattiazzi, MD, medical director of kidney transplant at MTI.

Seeing a growing need, the MTI team developed an innovative plasma exchange treatment that ultimately helped save Restrepo’s life, along with countless others. It turned into an international standard of care.

“You don’t get a transplant to live in a bubble. Our patients are supposed to get back to life, keep giving to the community, and be productive members of society,” Dr. Guerra said. “I can’t be prouder to know that Mr. Restrepo is one of those people.”

Today, Restrepo’s care team attributes his success to his transplant and his strong focus on his health.

“Seeing him take such good care of his gift over all these years makes it truly rewarding to be a part of his story,” Dr. Mattiazzi said.

“He received a deceased donor kidney transplant,” Dr. Ciancio added. “Passing the seven-year mark with excellent kidney function is something to celebrate.”

Restrepo credits the team with giving him a second chance at life and honors his kidney donor as “his angel.”

“MTI’s doctors, nurses, and staff make miracles every day,” Restrepo said. “They’ve made me able to enjoy life with my wife, my restaurant, be with my friends, and be a part of the community we love.”