Transplant Program Offers Second Chance at Life

A routine chest x-ray showed 11-year-old Magee resident Liz Garner Carpenter had an enlarged heart.

The little girl had inherited a condition with a big name –  hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

By 13, Carpenter already was on several medications. By age 18, she needed a pacemaker. Six years later, her name was placed on a transplant list – the same day she accepted her then-boyfriend’s marriage proposal.

“I could get a call at any time, maybe tonight,” Carpenter told friends over dinner in Hattiesburg on Sept. 11, 2004. At 3:15 a.m. on Sept. 12, the call came.

A few hours earlier, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Dr. David Miller, a general surgeon, and his wife, Rebecca, had decided to donate their daughter’s organs following a tragic car accident. Lindsay, a Mississippi College student, was a giver, her mother said, and on Sept. 12, she gave Carpenter the heart she desperately needed.

“As far as making a decision to donate her organs, it was a natural thing,” said Rebecca Miller, a nurse. “We believe the body is just a part of a person. The soul and spirit are what made her human.”

Carpenter arrived at the University of Mississippi Medical Center filled with questions about the surgery. That’s when she met Dr. Giorgio Aru, professor of surgery and surgical director for the Heart Transplant Program, and he gave her the reassurance she needed.

“Every time I told him I was scared, he said, ‘Don’t worry. I’m going to take care of you,’” she said. “That’s just what he did.”

Now Carpenter, 25, volunteers at the Medical Center, assisting other heart patients, and works at the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency.

The results of Medical Center heart transplant patients after one year and at three years is 15.8 percent better than the national average, according to a recent United Network for Organs Sharing (UNOS) report. The Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Medical Center performs the gamut of cardiothoracic operations and is the only center for heart transplants in Mississippi.

Dr. James D. Hardy, first chairman of the Department of Surgery, performed the world’s first heart transplant in man in 1964, so it amazes Aru when physicians in the state say they didn’t know the Medical Center performed heart transplants.

The Medical Center averages 10-12 heart transplants annually, and most of the patients are Mississippians. Aru said the waiting list for a heart in Mississippi is relatively short compared to other states - an average of seven people - because of the state’s small population and good rate of donations.

“Someone listed in Mississippi has a better chance of getting a transplant than elsewhere,” Aru said.

Patients waiting for a heart often don’t survive longer than a year without a transplant. Aru said he encourages people to consider organ donation, but he understands the fear associated with that decision.

“Too many people believe we are accelerating the demise of their family members to get the heart,” he said. “They don’t realize that in patients that are brain dead, the organs’ functions tend to deteriorate, and they often die in a few days if not in a few hours. Therefore, we usually have a very short window to procure the organs.”

It’s not unusual for Aru to be awakened in the middle of the night for a transplant. He said his work can be stressful, but the reward of giving patients a second chance at life is great.

Aru said much of the transplanted heart patients’ success is a team effort and that the nurses trained to care for cardiac patients are a vital part of that team. The cardiologist also plays a pivotal role, and Dr. Charles Moore, medical director for the transplant program, deserves much of the recognition for the three-year results.

After the transplant, patients must take medication daily to maintain their health and have heart biopsies routinely to monitor any potential problems. Carpenter takes 12 pills in the morning, three in the afternoon and 15 more at night.

She takes advantage of the opportunities a healthy heart affords her. Carpenter runs regularly, and recently she went waterskiing for the first time.

Rebecca Miller said, “Liz has been such a beautiful receiver of the most important gift.” The two have formed a special bond.

Carpenter calls Miller, “Momma Heart,” Miller said, and she calls Carpenter, “My Heart.”

Miller said it’s difficult for family members to talk about organ donation because that would be an admission that their loved one is going to die. She said it has been a comfort knowing her daughter was able to help someone, and organ donation provides Miller with peace knowing that something good came out of the loss of her daughter.

“Despite the suffering, it was a true blessing to offer our daughter’s organs,” she said.

Carpenter’s life has changed dramatically since the operation last September. At her weakest, Carpenter was wheelchair bound, on oxygen and weighed 80 pounds at 5 feet 2 inches.

She was waiting for a heart transplant when she got married.

Carpenter frequently fainted, and her wedding day was no exception. After the minister pronounced she and her husband married, they made their way back up the aisle.

“I turned to him and said, ‘I’m not going to make it,’” she said. After she passed out, “he just scooped me up and carried me out, and everybody went, ‘Aww!’ They had no idea I was unconscious.”

Carpenter is reminded of her sickest days more often now that her 22-year-old sister is awaiting a heart transplant and going through what she experienced. The family is hoping for another miracle.

Carpenter’s mother, Darlene Garner, remembers how her daughter described the first time she felt her new heart beating just hours after her transplant.

“She said, ‘Mom, my old heart used to beat like this,’” Garner said as she gently tapped her finger on the back of her hand. “‘Now, my new heart beats like this.’”

Garner changes the gentle finger tap to a steady thump. “Her life changed the day she walked into UMC and the moment she woke up,” she said.

—    Patrice Sawyer Guilfoyle (10-3-05)

 

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