At Christmas, a new chance

At Christmas, a new chance
By Blythe Bernhard
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/25/2007



For a few families spending Christmas in the cardiac intensive care unit at St. Louis Children's Hospital, the best presents are new hearts and new lungs.

Surgeons at the hospital have performed four heart and four lung transplants so far this month. The hospital's organ transplant waiting list holds another 80 children who are hoping for their chance.

Olivia Billings, 4, received a heart transplant on Sunday. Her heart, which has had trouble pumping ever since her premature birth, was replaced with a healthy one from a pediatric donor.

The lifesaving surgeries are a reminder of the bittersweet equation of organ transplantation: For one child to get a chance at a new life, another child had to die.

The Billings family hopes to someday thank the family that made the decision to donate their child's organs, if they wish to be contacted.

"Because of their child, our child lives," said Clifton Billings, of Green Ridge, Mo. "It makes you look at being a donor a lot differently."

Before her surgery, Olivia asked Santa Claus for a Dora the Explorer bowling game and a Mickey Mouse clubhouse. On Christmas Eve, weakened by medications, all she wanted was a glass of milk.

Last year, about 90 children received organ transplants in Missouri, and another 14 died on waiting lists.

Down the hall, Britney McCoy spent Christmas Eve with her mother, uncle, two aunts and a cousin. McCoy, 20, first went on the transplant list in March of 2006.

"I didn't ask for anything for Christmas, just a heart," she said.

When she gets stronger, McCoy wants to return to her business classes at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley.

Lena and Clifton Billings also were making plans as they sat at their daughter's bedside, holding her hands and rubbing her feet. They have tickets for their first family trip to Disney World for Olivia's fifth birthday in March. And the little girl has a preschool class waiting for her return.

"She's known nothing but machines her whole life," he said. "I guess this Christmas would be the start of a new life."