BY SANDRA V. RODRIGUEZ | Citizen Times, Ashville
William wants to see the snow blanket the land, just like in the pictures his father, Michael, took last year during the Christmas weekend snowstorm.
“I just like that it changes everything,” William said.
Last year the wish of William and his family was more dramatic: a new heart for William, who lay in bed heavily sedated in a harlotte hospital just before that December 2009 storm, his own heart failing.
This year, the 16-year-old just can't get enough of the outdoors. Maybe it was being confined to the hospital for more than a month last year. This fall he spent hours upon hours practicing with a bow in preparation for his first deer hunt, which he went on recently.
“If you're a teenager and you feel good, you want to go out,” said his father, Michael Bartlett. “He is often doing something because he feels like doing something.”
William can do that now thanks to a 16-year-old boy somewhere who gave him the gift of life, in the form of a new heart. The anonymous teen and his family potentially saved the lives of up to eight people through organ donation.
The Bartletts got their wish just before Christmas last year: William got his heart transplant on Dec. 20. Then the family waited to see if it would take.
“He (William) went into sinus rhythm on Christmas day,” said his mother, Tammy Bartlett, who had a difficult time holding back tears as she recounted the story. Sinus rhythm indicated that the transplanted heart was working as it was intended.
A boy in trouble
Growing up, William displayed all the traits of any growing boy — with one mighty difference: A rare congenital defect in his major arteries caused his heart to work overtime, all the time. That led the organ to begin to fail as William approached his teens, explained Dr. Benjamin Peeler, a surgeon with Charlotte's Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute, part of Carolinas Health Care System.
William's failing heart led to a rapid decline in health. William was in critical condition when Peeler, who retrieved and delivered the donor heart, met him shortly before the transplant in December 2009.
“His heart basically completely failed,” Peeler said. “He was essentially on the heart/lung machine to keep him alive before his transplant.”
William had been on the state's transplant waiting list for five years, since 2004. There are typically fewer organs for younger people than there are for adults because the size criteria for children are more specific.
For the years that William waited for a donor, his family treated him like a normal little boy who enjoyed playing baseball and football, which was modified to exclude contact. He liked to fish and hunt — activities that Michael enjoyed sharing with his son.
But little by little, things became harder for Will to accomplish.
“He (William) would spend about 30 minutes before he would say, ‘Dad, I can't do this,'” Michael said.
By 2009, a lot of little signs indicated William's condition was rapidly deteriorating. During the summer, William was noticeably slowing down.
On trips to the store, Michael and Tammy often had to stop and wait for William, who would struggle to catch up. Tammy kept trying to get him into a wheelchair, but William refused.
He would lie in bed, suffering from the pain brought on by migraines related to his failing heart.
One day when William was 15, in the early afternoon, Tammy received a call from her elder son, then 16-year-old Chris, that sent her rushing to Owen High School. The message? “Mom, he's turned blue.”
Around Thanksgiving 2009, Tammy noticed that William's toes were alarmingly swollen. Because his heart was so weak, he was retaining fluids “real bad,” enough for a trip to the emergency room. That same day, William was transferred into the care of doctors at Levine Children's Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
“We knew there was something wrong,” Tammy said. “He had asked us when we went down to get the heart catheter, ‘We're coming home, right?' I said, ‘We're supposed to.' But we didn't.”
Instead, William was moved to the intensive care unit, where he would remain until the new year. William was on a ventilator and heavily sedated for at least a week leading up to Christmas.
Last Christmas
Tammy spent most of the 2009 holiday season at William's bedside, staring out the window at a Christmas tree lot across the street. She saw the numbers dwindle as people bought their trees and drove off the lot, on their way to creating happy memories.
Her prayers were answered in the wee morning hours of Dec. 19: A potential donor heart had been found. By then, a heart and lung machine was the only thing keeping Will alive.
“When you all were getting the snow here — and he loves snow — his aunt said we were getting snow here because he was going to get his heart down there (in Charlotte),” Tammy said.
Tammy and her mother-in-law kept the information from the rest of the family — including Michael and Chris, at home in Black Mountain — until doctors confirmed it. The second call came about 8 a.m. Dec. 19. It was a match.
“I called him (Michael), and I told him, ‘They have a heart,'” Tammy said.
Michael and Chris had been commuting from Black Mountain to Charlotte on weekends while William was in the hospital. The Dec. 18 snow wasn't enough to stop Michael when he got the news: Michael, his father and his brother all got in the car to drive to Charlotte.
“My dad said, ‘Son, we got 18 inches,'” Michael said. “I said, ‘I'm getting out of here even if I have to call the National Guard.' We had no problems. The roads still had about that much snow (indicating at least 4 inches with his hands). But I was determined, I was going.”
The men made it in nearly three hours.
After the transplant surgery, William's doctors put him on an outside pacemaker, which helped the donated heart to beat a normal rate until it began to beat normally on its own.
During a checkup on Christmas Day, Peeler unplugged the pacemaker and then plugged it back in.
“He (Peeler) unplugged it again,” Michael said. “And he said, ‘Merry Christmas. We're on silent rhythm.'”
Regaining strength William was one of the lucky few who got a second chance. About 18 people on the transplant waiting list die every day, according to the Mayo Clinic.
There aren't enough organ donors for the more than 110,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list, including more than 3,000 North Carolinians, according to The United Network for Organ Sharing.
William went home in January. But it was just the first step in a monthslong recovery.
In the spring, the Bartletts took a walk around Owen High School's ball field during one of their first outings after Will was well enough to leave his home in Black Mountain. He took off running, leaving behind two very emotional parents. It was a big milestone for the teen who at one point couldn't eat and breathe at the same time.
“It was just amazing to see him walk and not get out of breath,” Michael said. “He said, ‘This is what it feels like to be normal.'”
It took a lot of work for the Owen High student to reach that milestone. He underwent physical therapy while in Charlotte because he needed to build up his strength — enough to be able to do everyday things like hold up a spoon or walk.
Even in their darkest days, Tammy and Michael were sure that doctors would do everything they could to make sure Will had a long and healthy life.
“My faith was just that strong,” Michael said. “God brought him here for a reason. He wasn't done with him.”
But nothing is guaranteed. William still has to be careful because his immune system is not where it should be — the doctors have to keep it suppressed so his body does not reject the new heart.
Diet and exercise are also very important. Will doesn't suffer from migraines anymore, and he can now eat pickles and cheese and peanut butter — his favorite snacks.
His doctors gave him a clean bill of health during a recent checkup in Charlotte. William was gaining height and weight, a sign of good health. At one point during his monthlong hospital stay, he weighed 70 pounds.
“I don't remember half of it,” William said. “I don't even remember going down (to Charlotte). I remember going up to the high school, telling someone that we were leaving. But I don't even remember getting on the interstate.”
That's been a blessing for Tammy and Michael, who wish the memory lapse could extend to them. A year out, the couple can't talk about it without experiencing some of the anguish over again.
William can only sit back and listen to his parents recall the long, difficult and scary journey that ended thanks to another family's priceless gift.
The Bartletts have not met the family of the donor teen, and they won't unless the family requests it. But Tammy said their son will always live on in William.
“We wouldn't have (William) today if it wasn't for him.”
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