Living liver donor gives hope to COVID survivor

Someplace between desperation and hope sits Barbara Gould and her household.

“It’s type of the story that by no means ends,” Barbara stated. 

A narrative that took her and people closest to her unexpectedly.

“I used to dwell on this world of ‘it could by no means occur to us,’ whether or not it was COVID or automotive accidents or no matter,” stated Rebecca Taggart, Barbara’s daughter. “And the final three years have been kinda like a slap within the face that it could completely occur to us.” 

Simply days after Barbara’s COVID analysis in 2020, docs known as her the “sickest of the sick.” 

Her household was separated from her within the ICU and felt simply as remoted and lonely as she did.  

Scared and current aside, the household relied on persistence and hope. Barbara’s son Sam Taggart wrote a letter to her as she recovered from COVID within the hospital. 

“Hey Ma, Because you’re extra awake now, I believed I might ship this letter. I’ve by no means been extra proud to be your son,” Sam wrote. “So when issues really feel exhausting and scary, let that uncommon spirit kick in.”

“Once I knew I used to be dying, there have been issues that I used to be very unhappy about lacking,” Barbara stated. 

And but, destiny had different plans for this spouse of 37 years, mom of two and grandmother to a brand new grandbaby – a ravishing child boy named Sully, after Dr. Breandan Sullivan, a important care physician at UCHealth who was one of many surgeons who saved her life as she fought COVID. 

A modest restoration adopted for Barbara after she returned house from the hospital – there have been good days, large days and momentous days. Years, every crammed with 365 further days that Barbara was in a position to spend together with her household making extra cherished recollections. 

“And I see the enjoyment that my youngsters really feel,” Barbara stated. “God, Rebecca, at her marriage ceremony, all of us at Rebecca’s marriage ceremony. Sam and Amanda and watching Sully as he grows up and will get much more excellent with day by day.”

“Good” is an attention-grabbing phrase for Barbara to make use of – contemplating her arduous restoration which was removed from excellent. Her liver specifically was shutting down. Her analysis was cirrhosis – late-stage liver illness. 

Determined to avoid wasting her life when she was being handled for COVID, docs put her on a machine that would do the work for her then-failing lungs – however the machine that saved her life additionally induced collateral injury to her physique and her organs.  

“I imply, the blood popping out of her physique and being oxygenated and put again into her physique, definitely not one thing pure,” stated Dr. James Burton, UCHealth’s medical director of the liver transplant crew. “She is wonderful in that she lived, however she did endure what I imagine was low blood circulation to her liver and I feel the bile ducts within the liver get their blood provide from the artery.”

Her docs stated actual restoration for Barbara would require a brand new liver. 

“And I stated, ‘I do not understand how you make an ask of any person,’ I do not understand how you,” Barbara stated. “He stated, ‘You simply ask. You simply put it on the market and you will be shocked.'”

So Barbara’s daughter, Rebecca, picked up her telephone and started to textual content her mates. 

“I used to be like, ‘How do you TikTok?’ I must determine this out,” she stated.

In want of a miracle, her household waited. 

“It is not her time, it wasn’t her time in April 2020 and it isn’t her time now,” Rebecca stated. “And it will not be her time for a few years – many, a few years.”

“You understand lots of people are asking, ‘What do you want? What do you want?’ I am like, ‘I would like a liver,'” giggled Rebecca. “I would like a liver. That is the one factor I would like.” 

Rebecca’s mother by no means wavered. 

“I am hopeful. I am not afraid,” she stated. 

That’s when life delivered Casey Czerpak, whose spouse Sarah grew up with Barbara’s son. 

“They’re all nice,” Casey stated. “You kinda aspire to have a household like that.”

She barely knew Barbara, however had been following her journey via her son and daughter’s social media posts about her restoration. When Barbara was launched from the hospital after COVID, Casey celebrated the milestone. 

“My spouse and I truly popped a bottle of champagne in celebration simply to cheers her truly making it house towards all odds,” she stated. 

The 2 of them truly met Barbara at a household marriage ceremony. 

Casey stated she adopted the Gould household on social media. 

“So that you get to type of watch their life, regardless that you are not instantly concerned in it,” Casey stated. “It is easy to see these are big years for them and it could be heartbreaking to overlook, not just for Barbara, however for Sam and Rebecca.”  

Then she remembered her spouse sending her a message she had acquired from Sam. Rebecca had began a post on CaringBridge to inform her mother’s story and to seek for an identical donor that her mom desperately wanted. 

“It stated Barbara’s in liver failure and desires a liver and in the event you’re click on on this hyperlink,” Casey stated. 

She messaged Rebecca asking her extra questions concerning the course of. Rebecca despatched her data and a hyperlink to the UCHealth web page. 

“To be sincere with you, I — this complete course of has kinda been a no brainer,” Casey stated. “And I perceive that that may not be the traditional course of for this. I’ve one thing that any person else wants that, why would not I? Why would not I assist?”

Casey wish to imagine anybody would make the lifesaving determination to surrender 65% of their liver to somebody hanging onto hope. 

“The appropriate lobe of my liver goes to go to Barbara,” Casey stated earlier than the surgical procedure. “Her complete liver will get eliminated – she will get my proper lobe – after which that can totally regenerate inside a 12-week interval. So it should fully return to its regular dimension.”

“It is little or no sacrifice for me for my part that would probably save a life,” Casey stated. “Actually a lifesaver. You are saving my life. And it is exhausting to take that in. It is exhausting to say these phrases.”

The surgical procedure took seven hours. Their livers will take months to totally regenerate. 

Casey, who occurs to be a mountain climber, acknowledged the mountain Barbara wanted to climb. 

“And an enormous factor with climbing mountains is fake summits,” Casey stated. “The place you suppose that is the highest and also you stand up there and also you understand – oh no, it isn’t over.”

Casey hopes that is the true summit for Barbara and her household – now, if they will safely return down the mountain. 

“She’s received a tough highway forward of her. I imply having a liver transplant – a significant operation. In all probability the most important operation somebody can bear,” stated Burton, Barbara’s physician. “She’s going to must get well from that. However I’ve no doubts that she’ll do high quality, and three months later she’s going to be doing all the pieces she needs to do.”

Barbara stated she now works exhausting at at all times discovering one thing stunning round her. 

“That is a lesson I discovered early on with this, simply to see the wonder,” she stated. “You understand my mom at all times beloved naked bushes towards a winter sky, and he or she would level them out and the designs of the branches towards the sky, and I used to suppose I do not actually like winter skies and naked branches, however I do now.”

The skinny line – between desperation and hope. Three years into this journey, Barbara and her household want to take a seat within the latter. It simply feels higher there. It at all times has.

“At the least in Judaism there is a saying, ‘To avoid wasting a life is saving the entire world,’  and I imagine that,” Barbara stated. “That is superior.”