Holly Werlein is shown with some of the medals she won at the recent U.S. Transplant and World Transplant games.
TRAVERSE CITY - It would have been like any other day in 2006 for 21-year-old Holly Werlein, except for one thing: her liver was failing.
“I was at the Cleveland Clinic for a totally unrelated appointment and my mom noticed my eyes were yellow,” Werlein said. “My doctor had my liver enzymes tested and they were in the 2,000 range, (well above normal), so my doctor immediately admitted me to the hospital. They tested me for everything possible and couldn’t find anything wrong.”
Werlein was soon diagnosed with acute fulminate liver failure, though the cause was never determined.
“Our two-day trip turned into an unexpected month-long stay at the hospital,” she said.
Because of her young age, the doctors expected Werlein’s liver to regenerate itself, but her condition continued to worsen, and they put her at the top of the national list for a liver transplant.
Holly’s gift of life came in less than eight hours, though she remembers little of the experience.
“I woke up and had no idea I had a liver transplant!” Werlein said.
She had a rough road of recovery – not only retraining her body to withstand even the shortest of exertions, but also enduring another hospitalization for rejection.
Four years later, Werlein, a Gaylord native who now lives in Traverse City, is 25 and has regained her natural athleticism in both swimming and running through swim training several times a week, along with workouts and weightlifting on her off days.
The hard work has paid off so much that in the last two years she competed in both the U.S. and World Transplant Games. In the U.S. Transplant games, she earned two gold medals in swimming and two silvers in running. At the World Transplant Games in Australia this past August, she won two bronze medals in swimming and took fourth place in beach volleyball.
Maximizing ‘gift’
“The games are an amazing experience,” Werlein said. “I am so proud and grateful every day that I am still able to do all the things I could do before. It’s hard to put into words the emotion that is felt.
“Celebrating my gift of life with other recipients and those affected by transplantation is indescribable. Everyone is just so happy and the atmosphere is breathtaking.”
Werlein has not just won prestigious medals. Her true gift was a second chance at life, and a new outlook on living it.
“I am so blessed to be alive and well,” Werlein said.
Her new goal is to spread the “importance of organ donation,” she said.
“I am living, walking; breathing proof that organ donation is successful. It’s not been an easy road. But it’s the truth that the struggles in life make you who you are. My dream is to travel the world and tell my story.”
She’s already begun. Werlein has already booked speaking engagements that include working with teens and young adults, talking to them about the importance of living well and making each day count.
Raising awareness
“People think they are invincible,” Werlein said. “You need to enjoy your life right now. Anything can happen to anyone at anytime.”
Werlein is also a volunteer administrator for the Web site Transplant Café (www.transplantcafe.com), a support site for those affected by organ donation.
“It’s like the ‘Facebook’ of transplants,” she said. “People waiting for transplants, recipients, donor families, caregivers and health care professionals all use the site.”
She is currently working with TRIO Youth Circle as well, another transplant organization that focuses on teaching the younger generation about organ donation.
“It gives younger kids hope and motivation for a normal life after a transplant,” she said. “It’s so hard to feel different when you are young.”
When Werlein isn’t busy with her speaking engagements and volunteer work, she is self-employed as a personal chef, cooking meals for clients in their homes or a location of their choosing, as well as offering recipes and tips in an online blog. She also models occasionally.
Right now, much of Werlein’s time is focused on fundraising for her upcoming trips to the Transplant Games. She is offering a personal chef night of cooking – a three-course meal, as one fundraiser.
Werlein was also a semi-finalist in the National Kidney Foundation’s Art Contest, submitting a photo she designed in Photoshop. The photo is being printed on T-shirts to be sold for a fundraising venture as well.
April is National Donate Life Month, said Werlein, who feels gratitude every day toward her donor and his family.
“It’s so easy to become an organ donor, and Michigan has one of the lowest percentages in the country of people signed up on the registry. (To sign up) you can visit your local Secretary of State’s Office, or go to www.giftoflifemichigan.org.”
For more information on Holly’s fundraisers, e-mail her at hwerlein@hotmail.com. For more information on the Transplant Games, visithttp://www.kidney.org/news/tgames2010/index.cfm.
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