Newburgh resident Kathy Shafer was one of about 50 former heart transplant patients at Westchester Medical Center as part of the hospital's 200th heart transplant celebration.

The event allowed recipients to re-connect with the staff and the fellow patients. Some share stories like Shafer's. She took medicine for years for heart failure, but in 2014, she told her doctor at WMC that something still wasn't right with her body.

"I had gotten what they thought was an autoimmune disease, and my body was trying to kick my heart out," Shafer said. "My heart would not fit on a computer screen, it was so enlarged."

Soon after, she went into total heart failure, and got her transplant within weeks.

Shafer said she didn't realize that she almost died. And after the surgery, she says she felt better than ever. Shafer turns 70 this year, with family and a team at Westchester to admire her transformation.