Musician awaits heart transplant

Art Nadler

Tuesday, May 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Ronald Teti sits waiting, a beeper never more than a few inches from his fingertips.

When it goes off, he has two hours to jump on a plane. Two hours to get to San Diego. Two hours to live or die.

Trent is a member of an elite fraternity he'd rather not be associated with. In January, cardiac specialists at the University of San Diego gave him the devastating news. He needed a heart and double-lung transplant.

"That knocked me on my ass," says Teti, 58, a longtime Las Vegas entertainer who goes by the stage name Ronnie Trent. "On Feb. 6, I was put on a national waiting list. They said my lungs were so bad that they wouldn't give me a heart unless I had both lungs done."

Today, Teti sits and waits at home. He knows someone's death will give him the gift of life, but he doesn't ponder that very much. It's too upsetting, as is the delicate operation he knows he must eventually face.

Several black-and-white publicity photos of Teti and his wife, Betty, adorn the top of a wood-grain entertainment center in the corner of their modest mobile home. He's at the piano dressed in a tuxedo. She leans leisurely on his shoulder in an evening gown -- the portrait of the perfect couple.

Ronnie and Betty played all the old venues -- the Marina, Dunes, Thunderbird, Sands and Sahara. Only the new mega-resorts escaped their grasp. And if Teti were well today, he says they'd probably be playing them, too.

The last time the couple performed together was on a cruise ship in Florida three years ago. He caught what he thought was a cold, but soon found out a virus had invaded his body and killed the front half of his heart.

The prognosis has gotten worse ever since. Confined to his home, Teti can't walk more than 30 feet without running out of breath and feeling his enlarged heart race uncontrollably.

To pass the time, the professional musician tinkers around with his computer. He has recorded instrumental parts for 5,800 songs and stored them on disk. It's a task he's been working on since 1989.

Nearly any music you want, Teti probably has an arrangement on it. Everything he has he played himself on synthesizer. Quite a feat for any musician.

"It helps me keep my mind off of this," Teti says, pausing for a moment to control his emotions. "This thing really has me scared."

At first he thought of moving to San Diego to be close to the hospital when the call eventually comes, but doctors advised against that. They said the strain of trying to find a place to live and being away from home would be too much to take. Besides, Teti says he has a good heart specialist in Las Vegas.

The main problem Teti faces is trying to catch a flight to San Diego. There are only two commercial airlines that fly direct, and certain hours of the day there are no flights. He figures he has only one solution, to charter an air ambulance. But that costs between $5,000 and $6,000.

Teti doesn't have that kind of cash. He's tried to contact several major hotels about using a corporate jet, but none has returned his calls.

"If I was a high-roller, they'd have a limousine and plane available 24 hours a day," Teti says. "Corporate Las Vegas has a heart, but it carries a price tag. It's either give me the money, or the notoriety, and then I'll help.

"But there are people in this town who really care. That's where the real heart lies."

Some of those people are Teti's fellow musicians. More than 25 are getting together Sunday to perform in a fund-raiser at Cafe Michelle West at 2800 W. Sahara Ave. Bruce Zarka, a keyboard player who has known Teti for five years, is organizing the event.

"Ronnie is one of the most honest people I ever met," Zarka says. "There's nothing phony about him. I've been in this business all my life, and you get to recognize the real from the phony right away."

Zarka says he first learned of Teti's condition when he asked him to sequence some music. As a fellow musician who has lived and performed in Las Vegas for 23 years, he felt he just had to do something.

"We hear sometimes on the news when someone gets mugged and no one helps," Zarka says. "It's not like that in Las Vegas. Here, the entertainers get together to help their own."

Besides what is raised at the musical benefit, Teti says four friends have offered to let him use their credit cards for the air ambulance if the money comes up short.

After his operation, Teti says he'll have to remain in the hospital for two weeks and then live in San Diego for three months to receive postoperative treatment. But that's down the road, and a social worker assured him money matters and living accommodations will be worked out somehow.

"I hope to go back to performing," Teti says with an optimistic smile. "The wife and I would like to go on cruise ships in Europe and perform. We're looking forward to it."

The musical benefit at Cafe Michelle West begins at 3 p.m. A $10 tax-deductible donation includes dancing, appetizers and raffles.

An account has also been set up at First Interstate Bank for Teti. Donations should be addressed to the Ronnie Trent Benefit Fund, donations No. 1800024697.