Teenagers often take going to school, studying with classmates and hanging out with friends and family for granted.

Mei Sano, 18, however, could not, at least not until after February 2009, when she received a heart at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

"I was able to endure (the whole process) because I wanted to meet my friends again," said Sano, now in her final year at Nihon Kogyo Daigaku Komaba High School in Tokyo. She stayed in New York until the following September recovering.