Brittany Amos had a baby a month ago, and her life is busy this holiday season.
But the 28-year-old and her husband made good on their promise to be at their friend Brandon Perkins’ bedside after his double-lung transplant in Denver.
They drove 21 hours in snowy conditions to be with him after the 6›-hour surgery, which began late Saturday and finished early Sunday.
“He thanked us for being there,” said Amos, whose new baby girl, Kyra, slept most of the way.
Perkins’ family and friends feel blessed this Thanksgiving, as the Boisean, who’s 26, had been on the organ donor waiting list since June. He was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when he was 9 months old, but it wasn’t until this year that his condition became dire.
“He says Nov. 21 is his new birthday,” said his mother, Diane Perkins. She said the family has not yet received information about the donor.
“The sad thing is that someone did have to lose their life to … give my son a better life,” she said.
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited condition that affects the lungs and digestive systems of about 30,000 people in the United States each year.
The symptoms include extremely thick mucus that clogs the lungs and prevents the pancreas from fulfilling its role in breaking down food for absorption.
LUNG REPLACEMENT NOT A CURE-ALL
Lung replacement can extend the lives of those suffering severe cystic fibrosis, but it doesn’t cure all the problems associated with the disease, said Dr. Perry S. Brown Jr. of the Cystic Fibrosis Center of Idaho.
“Cystic fibrosis does not affect the new pair of lungs,” Brown said. “but you still have chronic cystic fibrosis problems with other organs.”
But many of those problems can be managed with pancreatic enzyme replacements and insulin (when diabetes occurs); a small number of patients also suffer liver complications.
And organ transplants come with a risk of infection, rejection and immune suppression.
Brown said less than 10 percent of the 100 patients cared for at the Cystic Fibrosis Center of Idaho have end-stage lung disease and are considering a lung transplant.
Not that long ago, they didn’t even have the option.
The first successful lung transplant in the world was in 1983; the first successful double-lung transplant was in 1986.
National statistics show there are more than 1,600 lung transplants in the U.S. each year (for all maladies), according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
In recent years, there have been almost twice as many double-lung transplants as single-lung.
HOPING TO RETURN TO AN ACTIVE LIFE
Perkins led an active life as a child. He hiked, played soccer, skiied, snowboarded, bowled and played trumpet in the marching band at Capital High. He’s a 2002 Capital graduate.
But over the past year, his movement became more and more limited, Amos said.
“He lived life in four-hour increments,” she said. “then he’d have to have a breathing treatment.”
Perkins remained optimistic over the past four or five months, though some others he knew on the organ donor waiting list had died before they found a match.
“There’s a girl he knows who has been on the waiting list for 10 months,” said Diane Perkins. “She’s still waiting.”
Perkins got the call he’d been hoping for at 5:30 a.m. Saturday. two family friends transported Perkins to his mom’s house, and the pair boarded a plane headed straight to the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver.
The transplant surgery began at about 7 p.m. that night and finished up at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
“It’s all thumbs-up,” Diane Perkins said Monday. “Everything is going better than what I ever thought it would. They’re going to get him up and walk him around today.”
She said her son would be in the hospital about two weeks, then they will be in transitional housing near the hospital for two or three months.
Brown said transplant recipients can return to active lives, including athletics.
“there are some fantastic outcomes,” he said, adding that there are no guarantees.
Katy Moeller: 377-6413