Boy,9, Recovering from 2nd Organ Transplant

Oct 22, 2007 8:50 am US/Central
Boy, 9, Recovering From 2nd Organ Transplant

Sue TurnerReporting
(WCCO) There are more than 86,000 people in the United States waiting for an organ transplant and every day, 17 of those people waiting will die. Sean Fox, 9, is one of the lucky ones. He has received two organ transplants in the past two years. A year-and-a-half ago, he got a lung transplant. In July, Sean got a new liver. "It was very stressful, very, and toward the last couple of weeks, I think that his body was starting to shut down," said Sean's mother Ami Fox.The entire Fox family has been living at the Ronald McDonald House for the past two years. Now, they are looking forward to heading back to their Black River Falls, Wis. house in a few weeks.Doctors don't know exactly what made Sean's organs fail. They hope he is on the road to recovery, but even with two major organ transplants, rejection and infection were not their biggest concerns."The biggest challenge for us and for individual patients, actually, is to get a transplant in a timely fashion," said Dr. Abhi Humar with the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital Fairview.The problem is supply and demand. Sean was lucky. He waited just three months for his lung transplant. His liver transplant was based on how sick he was and at the end, he moved up the list quickly."We're standing in Target and the phone rang and it was the nurse from the ICU saying, 'The doctors want you back here as soon as possible. They think they have a liver,'" Ami Fox said. That was a call Ami Fox will never forget. Children can be tougher to get organs for because sometimes doctors can only use organs from other children. Ami Fox said she will never forget the child who gave the liver for Sean. "Their family will be in our prayers for the rest of our lives, because if it weren't for them, our son wouldn't be here," Ami Fox said. Many other families will not get a happy ending. Humar said putting organ donor on your driver's license is not enough. "The most common reason probably that we get for not getting consent in the United States right now is that people, family members are unwilling to make the decision for their loved ones," Humar said. If you want to be a living organ donor, which would include a kidney or the liver, contact the Transplant Center at the University of Minnesota Fairview. To make sure your family knows of your wishes after you die, you can register with Donate Life Minnesota.
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