Paralegal with Liver Disease Sees Need for Organ Donors

Neither Vicki Pierce nor Bridget Moore had any symptoms.

Pierce worked 12-hour shifts in the surgical intensive care unit. Moore played basketball in college and loved to exercise.

Both said they were in good health at the time.

Yet, at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, where both are employed, Pierce and Moore are forced to deal with the effects of liver disease.

For Moore, what started as a routine procedure to remove her wisdom teeth ended with a life-changing diagnosis.

Due to the extreme rarity of her disease, Moore said she was misdiagnosed twice before doctors discovered she had Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis with overlapping Autoimmune Hepatitis.

PSC focuses on the bile ducts of the liver and slowly destroys them, according to the Mayo Clinic's Web site.

"It was a scary thing, realizing that I will have to go through a liver transplant," said Moore, a paralegal for University Health Systems. "I went through severe depression, but luckily I had some good doctors that took care of me."

Moore said she takes more than 20 medications each day to combat the PSC, including supplements such as iron. Even though she will inevitably need a liver transplant, she said the timing depends on the rate her liver deteriorates.

"I could need a new liver in two years or 15 years," Moore said. "That is one of the hardest things for my doctors because they don't know when this (transplant) is going to happen."

Moore said there is a stigma in society associated with people receiving organ transplants, especially transplants involving the liver.

"A lot of times, the public thinks of those receiving transplants as people who have somehow inflicted this upon themselves," Moore said. "A large majority of the people dealing with this had nothing to do with it. It just happens."

Pierce, who now works as a registered nurse at HealthDirect, PCMH's nursing triage, said her story began in November 2005.

Even though she had no prior indications, Pierce said she started vomiting blood and had to be rushed to the hospital.

The doctors diagnosed her with Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis, NASH for short.

Over the next few months, Pierce said she was hospitalized numerous times to drain fluid from the right side of her lung and for surgery to bypass the main blood supply to her liver.

She moved to Jacksonville, Fla., to be closer to the hospital that performed her liver transplant on the morning of March 26, 2007.

"I had to move there and find a small assisted living facility for my stay through the transplant and recovery period," Pierce said. "Being in Florida by myself was extremely hard."

Currently, there is one transplant surgeon with hospital privileges at PCMH. Dr. Carl Haisch, who works in the division of transplant surgery at the Brody School of Medicine, performs kidney transplants.

A hospital official said PCMH is working with East Carolina University to recruit another transplant surgeon to the area.

One of the hardest parts of her transplant, Pierce said, was knowing what the donor family was going through and the sacrifices they were making.

Both Pierce and Moore emphasized the importance of becoming an organ donor.

"There are so many people that need hearts, livers, kidneys, and it can improve their lives so much," Pierce said. "It can help the donor families know that something good can come out of something so sad. It's a hard decision to make, but it can help so many people." (Source)

Comments

[Adrian Castro]

Our healthcare system is in terrible shape. I know a friend who is also awaiting a liver transplant. It has been several months (approaching 9 months). His abdomen is so bloated he looks more pregnant than an expectant mom at full term.

The human body is a miracle. It can heal itself if it had the right tools. Medicine kills.