Pneumonia scuttles Oregon girl’s transplant

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, December 15, 2001

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — As Brandy Stroeder waited Friday for the rare triple transplant surgery that would save her life, she joked with her mother that she would always consider Dec. 14 her new birthday.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Just minutes before Stroeder, already sedated, was to be wheeled into the operating room, doctors at the Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., told her the operation was called off because one of the donated lungs contained traces of pneumonia.

"I said, ‘What am I supposed to do now? Am I supposed to go home?’ " the 19-year-old said Saturday after returning to Oregon.

"I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. I was so devastated I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to sit by myself," she said.

Stroeder has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that chokes her lungs with mucus and causes damage to other organs. Without a lung-liver transplant, Stroeder will likely die within two years. She now relies on an oxygen tank to breathe.

The Oregon Health Plan last year refused to pay for the transplant, which could cost more than $250,000. Medical experts at the plan, which provides health insurance to Oregon’s poor, argued that the operation was experimental.

The McMinnville teen took her case before a three-judge panel of the Oregon Appeals Court last summer. They have not ruled in the case.

Stroeder has said getting the state to pay is a matter of principle, so that those who come after her will have an easier time. A community effort led by millionaire motel magnate Mark Hemstreet has already raised $300,000 toward medical costs.

Hemstreet also offered to fly her to Palo Alto on his private jet. That plane was being used on Friday, so Stroeder flew on another jet courtesy of Premier Jets and Louisiana-Pacific.

Stroeder got a call from the California hospital around 8 a.m. Friday telling her donor organs were available. By 1 p.m., she was undergoing preoperative tests in Palo Alto and by 11 p.m. she was sedated and ready for the surgery.

The procedure was called off around 11:10 p.m., a hospital spokeswoman said.

"It was hell. But I try not to let it slow me down or get my spirits down. I’m too strong for that," said Stroeder, who only knew the potential donor was a female.

While Stroeder’s heart is healthy, doctors had tentatively planned to replace it as well because cardiopulmonary organs are easier to transplant collectively rather than individually.

Because her heart was so small, Stroeder said doctors planned to transplant it into a pediatric patient — and that child’s family was also devastated.

"We knew at least in a sense we weren’t alone. We knew there was another family devastated with us," she said. "That made it a lot easier."

Stroeder said she is now a "higher priority" for the transplant because she has been sent home once. She hopes more donor organs will be available within two months, she said.

Eight lung-liver transplants have been performed in the United States. The United Network for Organ Sharing said only three heart-lung-liver transplants have taken place.

Stroeder said she tries not to let the long odds keep her down.

"I’m going to go trying, or I’m not going to go at all," she said. "It didn’t happen on Dec. 14, so I’m waiting for my second birthday."

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