Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - The mother of a 17-year-old standout swimmer in North Tonawanda says the teen is recovering from a liver transplant operation in Pittsburgh. She says the support has been never ending.
Sara Roberts says Meredith is doing better. "She's got some post-op pain today. Physical Therapy did work with her, got her out of bed to the chair for a little bit, but it's a lot of rest right now, in recovery and getting her meds on schedule and making sure that her body readily accepts this new liver as its own," says Roberts. Sara says Meredith was diagnosed with Wilson's disease once they arrived in Pittsburgh. Wilson's disease is a genetically inherited mutation of a chromosome or a protein mutation Sara says neither she nor Meredith's father didn't even know they had. She says it's very rare, but it does make the liver go into failure.
Sara says support has been amazing. "Social media support, the support from North Tonawanda High School, the North Tonawanda community and beyond, extending well past New York State and even out of the United States has been incredible," says Sara. "We feel so much support and love, even though we're in Pittsburgh and we're far from home and many of our family members there, it feels like everybody's right with us, with the wonderful comments and messages that we received and just outpouring of love from everyone that wants to help her," says Sara. She says the family was trying to get her a living donor, where a donor could donate part of their liver to her, and more than 600 applied. "Even though that did not work out, because the cadaver donor liver became available first, we will always be so grateful for friends and family and complete strangers who wanted to give one of their organs to help our daughter survive."
Meredith's swimming coach with NT High School and Tonawanda Titans Tim Bennett says this all came about in a matter of two weeks. "They've been kind of shell shocked a little bit, but they have all known each other for a very long time. Some of them have been together since they were three years old in preschool and gone through so their support has been amazing," says Bennett of Meredith's teammates. "They've been in constant contact with her. Things have kind of ebbed and flowed with her ability to make the contact as she was going through some of the procedures. But they've written cards, and they've done the emails, and they've done the electronic cards, and we actually hoped for quicker and quicker results."
Bennett says Meredith was set to compete in the state swimming championships this coming weekend, the only member of her high school team who qualified. "I think being a senior and having the success that she's had her whole career, this was kind of the culminating thing. And she had set herself up amazingly, she had been doing things that she hadn't done in previous years up to this point had been faster than she had been up to this point, and really had high expectations for herself going into the meet this weekend, but I guess she was preparing for something else, because that strength and endurance that she has is helped her pull through this which is absolutely amazing," says Bennett.
Jeremy Morlock of ConnectLife says demand for organ donation is never ending. "There's always a greater need for transplants than there are a number of organs that become available," says Morlock. He says in New York state, there are more than 8,000 people who are waiting for organs. "Most of those are waiting for kidney and the liver is the second most needed organ right now in New York State, and for both kidney and liver, although it's most common for those transplanted organs to come from a deceased donor. There is also the possibility of someone becoming a living kidney donor or a living liver donor," adds Morlock.
Becoming a living donor is easier than you think. "The first step to do is to get in touch with one of those transplant centers that has a living donor program here in western New York were served by the University of Rochester. Strong Memorial Hospital has a liver Donation Program, and people can actually just call them up, 585-275-5875, and find out more about their transplant program. Folks around here can also be seen at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, here in Western New York, we're close to a lot of really high quality clinics," explains Morlock.
Morlock says being a living donor doesn't mean giving up an entire organ. "For a liver, it's a portion of the liver. And what's really remarkable is that you would give less than half of your liver to somebody who's in need of that transplant, and then your own liver would regenerate, and so over time, it would pick up that lost function that that you had, and you would have a fully functioning liver, and then so would the transplant recipient," says Morlock.
Meredith is set to compete at Fairfield next year.