Tag: Transplants

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David Bruce: Transplants and Heroes

• Following a liver transplant on 5 December 2005,Glenis McGrath got an extra added bonus: the return of her eyesight. Ms. McGrath, who moved to Brisbane, Australia, from Dubbo, Australia, for the transplant, said, “The how or why of what’s happened cannot be explained, but doctors are now busy documenting my amazing recovery. I’m just so happy to be able to see again and to have a donor liver that’s giving me a whole new chance at life. My excited doctors told me to go out and tell the world, and I certainly haven’t needed any encouragement to share the good news. It just goes to show what can be achieved through medical technology, the power of prayer, and sheer determination.” Ms. McGrath had endured 20 years of pain, deteriorating health, and bowel and bile duct surgery before the transplant. She said, “Whenever things seemed too much, I’d say, ‘You go, girl — get on with it.’ There was no point giving up or feeling sorry for myself. I was prepared to fight every step of the way because there’s just so much to live for.” She almost did not get a liver transplant: “I lived in Brisbane for six months before receiving the call that a liver was available. After [I was] prepped for surgery, doctors said the donor liver was too fatty so I was sent home. I was absolutely devastated and returned to Dubbo not knowing what was likely to happen with my health. Fifteen months ago an alarming deterioration in my liver function and eyesight prompted a quick move back to Brisbane. Doctors were unsure about what could be done, and two months ago I reached the point where I could barely see at all. The Royal Blind Society was preparing to train me to use a guide dog, then after another hospitalization I found myself back on the transplant list.” After the transplant, she spent a lot of time in intensive care. She said, “Then an amazing thing happened — a nurse came into my room, and I could see her face. At first I thought it was my imagination, but later when they took me outside in a wheelchair I could see flowers, trees, and colors. It was absolutely amazing, and stunned medical staff were over the moon. Perhaps it was the transplant or the massive vitamin A doses I had been given in an attempt to combat the blindness. Being able to see is a wonderful gift that is allowing me to return to my passion of painting. I used to paint five days a week — it was my life.”

• In 2003, fourth-grader Souad (Arabic for “luck”) Barry received a special gift from her younger brother, Obie, age seven: a bone-marrow transplant that cured her sickle-cell disease. In 2004, the children’s mother, Titi Barry, held a big party for 200, including people from as far away as Africa, at the Lomax AME Zion Church in Arlington, Virginia, to celebrate her daughter’s cure. Titi said, “I was praying and I was telling God if this works, I will praise Him and invite all the people involved.” Before the transplant, Souad suffered. She said, “The pain would wake me up. It was mostly in my stomach.” Her family tried to ease her pain. Souad said, “They would rub my body and use a hot washcloth.” In July 2002, her health was very bad, and she needed three blood transfusions — in three days. Getting the money for the $400,000 procedure was difficult. The salaries of father Oumar Barry, an airline worker, and Titi Barry, a sonographer, could not cover it. Titi said, “I didn’t understand. Our insurance company didn’t want to pay because they said it was experimental.” She wrote to many nonprofit organizations to ask for money for the procedure, but she said, “I received 10 responses. All of them said it was the end of the year and they didn’t have funds.” Fortunately, she learned that the procedure could be done free at the Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, California, so Titi and her children went to Oakland while Oumar stayed in Arlington and worked. Titi said, “It was hard because we didn’t know anybody there. But I said if I had to sleep on the street, I will do it because we’d been through so much already.” Previously, Souad had protected her brother from playground bullies. Souad said, “He’s always playing basketball. One day, this boy wanted to take his ball and I pushed him away.” Now Obie helped his sister. Titi said, “Obie had seen Souad have crises. He asked me, ‘If I give my blood, will Souad feel better?’ I said ‘Yes.’ Then he said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it!’” After the bone-marrow transplant, Souad felt better and was free from sickle-cell anemia. She wants to learn gymnastics. She said, “I want to learn to do a cartwheel.”

• On 22 November 2011 in western Pennsylvania, fire broke out at the home of Charlene McMasters, age 74. She said, “I don’t know what it was, but I remember something woke me up. I noticed smoke and I rushed to get my handbag and I went to the window and screamed and screamed.” Justin Ritchie, her 14-year-old neighbor, woke up when he heard first his dog barking and then her screaming. New Castle Assistant Fire Chief David Joseph said about Justin, “He went out and saw this woman hanging out of the window. … It was Charlene, and her house was on fire,” Justin saw a rickety wooden ladder and leaned it against the wall so that she could climb out of her window. He warned her that the ladder was rickety, but she replied that she didn’t care. She took two steps down the ladder, it broke, and she fell. She said, “I came crashing down and fell a long way.” She broke some ribs in the fall and was taken to a hospital. She said, “I got a walker, a good therapy session, and I will heal. I can’t thank this young man enough. I don’t know what would have happened had he not come to my rescue.” She added, “I’m grateful to be alive. It was quite an ordeal.”

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Individual volumes of the Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise are also available.

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David Bruce: Transplants Stories

• On 1 September 2010, Graham Denison donated a kidney to his daughter, Kaye Noone, a 28-year-old schoolteacher in Teesside, England. At age 13, Kaye was diagnosed with polycystic kidney syndrome. For 15 years, she often suffered infections and required repeated trips to hospitals, and eventually she needed dialysis and then a transplant. Kaye said about her father, “After the operation, he was telling people, ‘I’ve given my daughter life twice. Once when she was born and then again two days ago.’ I think it’s absolutely amazing. He’s an amazing dad anyway. There’s an extra bond now. I feel closer to him. I’m really grateful and he knows — I’ve said ‘thank you’ a lot! I ask him how he is all the time and he’s really well.” The transplant frees her from the three hours of dialysis that she needed daily. Kaye said, “I’m young, had just got married, and am quite career orientated, so I was worried three hours a day on dialysis would affect my lifestyle. I wasn’t worried about having a transplant because I always saw it as the solution and dialysis as a temporary measure. Because I’d been in hospital quite a lot, I was reassuring dad. But when I asked him if he was nervous, he said he wasn’t. He’s the kind of guy who just gets on with things.” Her father, Graham, a computer engineer, said that he had “only done what any parent would do.” He said that he is proud of Kaye, who graduated from a university despite being forced to take time off due to her bad health. He called her his “little hero.” Graham said, “The fact it is your child overrules any risks or nerves that you might have. I couldn’t have not done it. I don’t feel particularly brave. You just feel you’ve done your duty. You’ve done what any parent would do.” He supports organ donation: “I think it’s a shame wasting organs when someone dies.” Kaye said, “I know how lucky I was to have someone who was able to give me a kidney as 90% of organs needed are kidneys, according to UK Kidney Research. If more people were on the register, we would be able to keep more people alive for longer.”

• In 2002, Rebecca Hancock, age three, saved the lives of her twin baby brothers. Alex and Jake, nine months old, had a rare genetic disease that was harming their immune system. Without a bone marrow transplant, they would be dead by age one. Their parents, Emma and Tim, of Maidstone, Kent, England, were not good matches, but sister Rebecca was a perfect match. Emma, age 23, said, “I cried when it dawned on me that Rebecca was the one who would probably save their lives. We didn’t think she would want to have the operation. I asked her, saying, ‘You know that little bit of blood the doctors took from you? It is going to make Alex and Jake better. Would you like to give some more blood so that you can make them better?’ She just looked at me and simply said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ It was if she was saying, ‘No problem — piece of cake.’ We were totally overjoyed. They told us that most adults are laid up for a week after giving their bone marrow. But Rebecca was up next day, running up and down the corridors. It was fantastic to see.” What about the twins? Emma said, “They are doing really well. They will have to go to hospital regularly until they are 18 and they are on five drugs a day as they cope with the new marrow, but it seems to have been successful already.” Emma added, “We are so proud of Rebecca. She is being spoiled rotten at the moment because she really is our little heroine.”

• In September 2001, Ben Ferguson, age four, became Scotland’s first patient to receive a grandparent-donated kidney. Ben had suffered from kidney problems (renal failure) all his life; he even had to have one kidney removed and had been going through dialysis. In 2000, doctors at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in Glasgow decided that he needed a kidney transplant. His parents, Angela and Sam, from Old Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire, were unsuitable donors. Fortunately, one of his grandfathers, 54-year-old Joe Boyd, was a perfect match. Mr. Boyd, a construction site manager in excellent health, said, “It was fantastic being able to give this gift to my grandson, and I am delighted the operation has gone so well. The best part is being able to see the difference it has made to little Ben, and hopefully he will now lead a full and active life free from health worries.” Dr. Anna Murphy, a consultant pediatrician at Yorkhill and Ben’s pediatrician since his birth, said, “Everyone is delighted at how well the operation has gone and how well both Ben and Joe are doing. The bond between the two has been very strong ever since Ben was born, and I know Joe is overjoyed that he has been able to give this gift to him. Ben really has beaten all the odds to come this far; he is a very determined little lad and has impressed us all with his courage.”

• In 2009, Drew Swank, a 17-year-old living in Spokane, Washington, was hit by an opposing player in a football game. He was taken to Sacred Heart, where he died. His family donated his organs to seven people, whose lives were saved or whose sight was restored. His mother, Patti, said, “I knew when his accident, when he, he didn’t make it that he would want to do that.” His father, Don, said, “We met Rocky, who received Drew’s lungs, he let us listen to Drew’s, our son’s, lungs with a stethoscope and how wonderful that is.” Patti remembered about Drew, “Out of the blue he asked me, ‘Mom, what do you think about organ donation?’ and I think it had to do with he just got his drivers license and they asked that.” His sister, Tara, said, “Drew is a hero. He’s a hero to everyone in our family.”

• “I had to have a complete liver transplant.” — Shelley Fabares, actress in Coachand The Donna Reed Show.

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