"The Call"

At around 2:00 yesterday afternoon we received the call we have been waiting for. I was told that the surgical team had accepted a liver for Evan and that they wanted us to come soon even though the surgery wouldn't be right away. They were worried that there was potential for bad weather that would make it harder to get into Palo Alto.

The flight over was uneventful. Evan had a hard time on the flight. It didn't seem he understood what was going on and was upset until the flight nurse switched seats with me so I could sit next to him. Then he was calm for the remainder of the flight. We flew in to Moffett Air Field and were met buy an ambulance which took us to the hospital. Evan didn't seem to mind the ambulance ride too much.

Once we arrived at the hospital, the craziness began! We were quickly brought up to the floor where the nurses checked all Evan's vitals, started his IVs, and just basically poked and prodded for a bit. We were told that Evan was scheduled to go into surgery at 7am, although anything could change. He was not allowed to eat after midnight, but they put him on his D10 IV and gave him lipids (fat) to keep his calories and fluid up. The night was difficult, Evan couldn't sleep and of course that meant we didn't sleep much either. Come 6:00 am we were wondering why we hadn't heard from the nurse or the docs about when we would be taking Evan down for surgery. By 6:30, we found out why. There was a delay in harvesting the organs and the surgery had been pushed back. No one could tell us what time, as the donor organs were still not harvested.

At this point, we are still waiting. The surgical team feels confident that this liver will be good for Evan. All they could tell us is that the donor is in the 5-10 year old age range. This most likely means the liver will need to be cut a bit to fit into Evan. Of course with this, there comes added risk for infection and bile leaks (all which are treatable).

This is not how I pictured this would go. I pictured we would get here and within a few hours Evan would be in surgery while we anxiously paced the halls.  Instead, we anxiously wait in a tiny and noisy hospital room with no clue as to when his surgery will be. It could still be tonight or it could be in the morning. All depends on the donor and what is taking place on that end. The team here is ready...so are we!

Of course, it is difficult not to think of the sacrifice the family of the donor is making. They have lost a child, yet they choose to make an unselfish decision and share his/her organs so that children like Evan can grow and hopefully have a wonderful healthy life. I cannot imagine the grief and pain this family must be feeling. I pray that God can give them peace in knowing that their child did not die for nothing. That in their child's death there is healing for other children.  I am sure they have feelings on anger, sadness, and just plain frustration wondering why they are losing their child.  I wish that I could give them an answer. I wish I could hug them and tell them that out of this death comes new life. Would that even console them? I don't know. We were told that after the transplant at some point we could send a letter to the donor family through the organ procurement program. They could then decide if they wanted to meet us. What would that be like? Would they even want to meet us? Would we even write the letter? It's something we will think about and most likely will do down the road when Evan is recovered and doing well. I have seen videos of donor families meeting recipient families and they are quite emotional. I don't think we will be ready for that kind of emotion for a while as we are still going through our own emotional roller coaster...and I am sure the donor family is too. 

Please pray that this truly is Evan's time for a new liver. Although everything seems to be in order, there is still always a chance that the liver arrives here and the transplant team decides it's not the right liver for Evan. We have faith that this is his time and that God has a plan for us, Evan, and the donor family. 



I will leave you with this, "The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation"


The donation this family is making is immeasurable to us! It is the greatest gift that we will ever know!