By Kay Quinn, Special to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 15, 2007

She was an athlete, a college student on a scholarship, a volunteer who worked with babies born addicted to crack, and who was active in the Big Brother Big Sisters organization. She was the beloved middle sister, and a cherished sorority sister.

Casey Ann Hohman was just 22 when she died Feb. 15, 2002, three months after a heart transplant.

"We never saw her once cry," said her father, Vince Hohman of St. Charles. "We never saw anything but the most positive attitude that you could possibly imagine."

For nine years, Casey lived with a heart that was gradually weakening. The first sign something was wrong appeared when she was 13. She would become sick to her stomach for no apparent reason, and her parents had made several trips to the doctor.

It was on a Sunday emergency trip to the doctor that the cause of her illness was traced to her heart.

"He said ''Casey, I can''t find anything wrong with you, but I know you''re ill,'' " recalled Hohman of that meeting with the doctor. "We talked a little bit more, kind of just sat socially talking, and all of a sudden she said ''Doctor, it''s doing it now.''"

The doctor put his stethoscope to Casey''s chest and found her heart was racing at 265 beats a minute.

"He goes, ''Oh my goodness, you need to follow us down to Children''s Hospital,'' " said Hohman.

Casey was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia. Initially it was treated with cardiac ablation, a surgical procedure that destroys the tissue causing the short-circuit. When that stopped working, Casey had a pacemaker implanted.

Finally, her heart became so weak, she needed a heart transplant. No cause was ever found for Casey''s heart disease. Doctors think it might have been caused by a virus.

"I think she always thought that she could overcome," said Hohman, with his wife, Sharon, at his side. "Every year she overcame so many problems that she always thought that she would overcome it. When she actually went for her transplant, she was laughing."

The Hohmans say Casey never showed any signs of fear. In the years since her death, her parents and family have started a foundation in her name, and held a number of fundraisers.

"We''re very proud of the way we''ve been able to honor her memory," said Hohman. But it''s the latest effort of the Casey Ann Hohman Foundation that may make the biggest difference in the lives of families dealing with catastrophic illness.

In August, the Hohmans opened Casey''s Place, a fully furnished apartment that out-of-town families with relatives undergoing treatment for serious heart ailments can rent for $25 a day. Patients'' families are offered the use of the apartment by the heart transplant social worker at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

"Really, it''s about helping people that are in need, because it is a very, very costly thing to go through," said Hohman. "It''s very difficult, you know, to have that financial pressure on you besides the pressure of watching someone with a very serious critical illness."

The Hohmans say they were lucky to have Barnes-Jewish Hospital so close to their St. Charles home. Now, they hope Casey''s Place can provide a home-away-from-home for families in need.

For more on the Casey Ann Hohman Memorial Association, visit www.lemonwalk.com.

You can learn about heart transplant at the Heart Transplant Association of St. Louis website at www.hta-stl.org.