Hempfield donor recipient thankful for 'gift of life'
Heather Hunter of Hempfield wasn’t supposed to be at Excela Square at Norwin on Wednesday morning, talking about how a double lung transplant in September 2016 gave her a second chance at life.
Doctors weren’t sure that Hunter, born with cystic fibrosis, would make it to see kindergarten, let alone graduate from Greater Latrobe High School, live to be married and see her 35th birthday. The hereditary lung disease often claims its victims by age 30 as a thick and sticky mucus clogs the lungs, making breathing impossible.
Hunter said she spent 134 days in UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh before her transplant Sept. 25, 2016, in part because her pulmonary function had deteriorated so much that she had to be placed on a ventilator.
“I thank my donor every day for giving me back my life. I waited 31⁄2 years for the call to save my life,” Hunter told about 25 people who gathered for the ceremony at the North Huntingdon site to recognize April as National Donate Life Month.
“I’ve celebrated every milestone from baby steps to huge, huge” progress, said Hunter, a petite woman with a powerful message.
The Center for Organ Recovery and Education, an O’Hara-based, federally designated nonprofit organ procurement organization, estimates there are almost 115,000 people across the nation waiting for a life-saving transplant. One donor can save as many as eight people while improving the lives of as many as 75 others through tissue donation.
Alex Rega, professional services liaison for CORE, said it is important that people are made more aware of “the need to increase donor designations, (and) the increase and need for organs for transplant.”
“We want to honor the legacy of those who give the gift of life. The families of the donors know their loved ones are living on,” Rega said.
In 2018 at Greesburg-based Excela Health, 22 donors provided tissue for more than 1,600 grafts and 28 donors provided corneas for transplants, giving 56 patients “the gift of sight,” Rega said.
The efforts by Excela Health to increase organ donation awareness were recognized by the Hospital and Health Systems Association of Pennsylvania, which awarded it a titanium rating in the 2018 Pennsylvania Donate Life Hospital Challenge. Excela Health’s Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant and Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg also received titanium status.
The increase in awareness is helping to make more organs available for patients. At the Allegheny Health Network Transplant Institute, the number of transplants has increased over the past few years, said Dr. Suresh Kumar, director of the kidney and pancreas transplant program. AHN completed 92 kidney transplant procedures last year and 26 so far this year, Kumar said.
Advances in medicine have increased the survival rate for kidney transplant patients to 95 percent after one year, Kumar said. The 10-year survival rate is 50 percent.
More than 400 patients are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, compared to an average of 80 patients in 2007, said Nikki Buccina, an AHN spokeswoman.
But, there remains “a lack of organs” to be transplanted, Kumar said. “People wait for three years for an organ.”
He said 22 people die each day nationwide waiting for a transplant.
As for Hunter, she says she’ll likely have to undergo another transplant because she has Stage 4 kidney disease caused by the strong drugs she has had to take to prevent organ rejection.
“I’m never looking back,” Hunter said of her lung transplant. “I’m forever grateful for it.”
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
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