In March 2005, Missy had surgery to remove a GIST tumor in her abdomen. During this extensive surgery, oxygen and blood supply were cut off from her small bowel which in turn caused it to die. Because of this, Missy was placed on a transplant list as it was the only way for her survival.
In July 2005, Missy was granted her first multi-visceral transplant. The first three weeks, things progressed beyond what was expected. Then, Missy started going into severe rejection. She went thru a couple of months of constant treatment and it was eventually decided to give her a second multi-visceral transplant, this time, including a liver as hers had overworked itself with the first transplant.
In October 2005, a second, multi-visceral transplant (liver, stomach, duodenum, pancrease, small bowel) was given to her and has continued to be successful. Very few people in the world have been given two multi-visceral transplants. After severe pnemonia and a heart anurism in fall 2005, Missy had to learn to walk all over again and was finally released to go home in December 2005, thus being able to spend the holidays with her 8 year old son, fiance’, and family.
