In the Cortland Standard on 2/1/07

Homer native undergoes double lung, liver transplant

By SASHA AUSTRIE
Staff Reporter
saustrie@cortlandstandardnews.net

After more than 10 hours on the operating table Patti Prince, 25, received a double lung and liver transplant. Prince, a Homer native living in Yorkville near Utica, received the transplant Wednesday morning at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

“The most thoughtful, kindest person I know has a chance at life,” said Patti’s best friend, Beth Odell, of Cortland. “I’m totally blessed just knowing her.”

Prince’s husband, Nathaniel, Prince, said his wife is in the intensive care unit at the Cleveland Clinic. He said that she was slightly sedated and she was able to communicate on a dry erase board. “She is doing real good,” he said.

Prince was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 6 months. The hereditary disease affects the entire body, but mostly the lungs, which can become severely damaged by thick mucus secretions over time.

Her donor was age 23, gender unknown and, according to Odell, died eight blocks away from the clinic.

“It was a perfect match,” Odell said of the _organs. “All we are thinking is, God bless the family.”

Over her life Prince has undergone five surgeries to stop the bleeding in her lungs, two stomach surgeries to release blockage in her intestines and a liver biopsy, Odell said.

“When she wakes up she is going to take the first real breath in her life,” Odell said. She said the first thing Patti Prince is going to do when she gets strong enough is eat pizza and drink chocolate milk, then take her 1-year-old son, Brady, out for a walk.

Nathaniel Prince said it would be approximately three months before his wife would be able to come home. “We are just hoping to get her healthy enough so that she can do what she is able to do,” he said. He said that his wife’s main focus is to be a mother again and become independent.

Before the transplant on Wednesday, Prince had three sets of organs offered to her.
In one instance, everything was a match, both lungs and liver, but the final tests revealed the organs were infected with hepatitis B. In another instance, the lungs were good, but the liver was damaged; in the third offer, the lungs were too small for Prince.

The new organs are not a cure for Prince. She will be on anti-rejection medication for the rest of her life. Odell said the organs could last Prince from a year to 20 years, it all depends on how her body reacts to the organs. “She has got her baby, her husband, her health and her miracle,” Odell said. “It is such an amazing gift. I kind of feel like Shawn (Falter) was pulling some strings for her.” Odell was referring to Prince’s childhood friend who was a soldier killed in Iraq on Jan. 20 and buried in Glenwood Cemetery Wednesday.

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