Tweet
Copyright 2004 The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS)
All Rights Reserved
The Clarion-Ledger
December 20, 2004 Monday
SECTION: MAIN; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 851 words
HEADLINE: Out of the abundance of a heart
BYLINE: Lora Hines, [email protected]
BODY:
Decision saves Magee woman
INSIDE
*Donor's family meets recipient, 7A
By Lora Hines
MAGEE - Lindsay Miller tooled along I-10, full of life, as she headed with
her twin brother, boyfriend and other friends to her 10-year-old brother's
birthday party in Pascagoula.
Elizabeth Carpenter, barely able to walk the 62 steps to the mailbox at the
end of her driveway in Magee, was feeling her life fading.
In the seconds of squealing tires and Miller's desperate effort to regain
control of her Toyota 4Runner, Miller's life ebbed and soon flowed into
Carpenter's.
On Sept. 12, Carpenter received the heart belonging to Miller, a young woman
who dreamed of becoming a world-traveling journalist.
"We will forever be bonded," Carpenter said. "She wanted to be an organ and
tissue donor. She had to be amazing. She was a very smart girl. She had so many
positive things in her life. I think I would live my life in a way she would
approve of."
Before the transplant, Carpenter's weight, normally around 95 to 100 pounds,
had dropped to 82. The petite 24-year-old no longer had energy to wash her long
hair or brush her teeth.
First diagnosed at 11, Carpenter always knew the genetic disease from which
she and her younger sister suffer gradually would destroy her heart.
At the time, Carpenter said it didn't occur to her how bad things had gotten.
"You don't realize not everybody feels this way," she said. "I thought I was
getting older. I had to admit that I was sick."
On July 13, Carpenter was placed on the state's heart transplant list.
On Sept. 10, Miller was driving on I-10 East when a vehicle swerved into her
path, forcing her to move out of the way, Biloxi police said. Miller lost
control of the 4Runner she was driving and hit a concrete embankment before
rolling several times.
Miller, her boyfriend, Maksim Sisoev, a 20-year-old foreign exchange student
from Uzbekistan, and Elizabeth Finch, 19, of Clinton, died. Miller's twin
brother, Josh, and Nicole Thurman, 19, of Picayune were hurt.
Krystal Marie Teston, 21, of Florida has been charged with four counts of
felony aggravated DUI.
Carpenter and Miller's family have corresponded. They have not met. People
who know the Millers said the family still is grieving. The family isn't
prepared to speak publicly.
Sunday was Josh's birthday. It would have been Lindsay's, too.
James Laird of the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency said some donor families
never communicate with their recipients.
"Donor families are just happy to receive a card," he said.
Laird's son, Jonathan, now 13, received a liver transplant in 1992 when he
was 7 months old. The organ came from a year-old boy who died from a brain
tumor.
The donor family has not contacted the Lairds.
"I still send them things, and I never get anything back," he said. "That's
OK, too."
Besides Carpenter and her sister, Katie Layton, the family disease -
idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis - also has attacked a couple of
great-uncles and cousins. The disease gradually causes the heart muscle to
become too thick to properly function.
"At first, it's not that bad," Carpenter said. "You function normally." As
the heart becomes thicker, it begins to fail.
Carpenter is the first in her family to receive a heart transplant.
Carpenter's family thought she would die before Christmas without the
transplant. She married her husband, Terry, five weeks after she was placed on
the transplant list.
The couple's hometown of about 4,200 helped plan and celebrate their Aug. 7
wedding. People brought food. Her pharmacist filmed the event.
"The entire Magee community pulled the wedding together," Carpenter said. "It
was the most beautiful wedding I've ever seen."
Meanwhile, she prayed for her heart. "I asked, 'Whoever my donor is, let them
have a Christian heart. God can help their family heal.'
"Lindsay was the perfect person in every aspect," Carpenter said.
Since her transplant, she has gained 30 pounds. Her gaunt face has
transformed into a "moon face," she said, because of medication she takes to
prevent rejection of her donor heart.
Carpenter's new-found energy, she said, "is really amazing to me."
Now Layton, 21, is waiting to get on the transplant list. Layton, diagnosed
with her family's heart disease at 9, feels as weak as her sister did before her
transplant.
"It feels like someone is holding a pillow to her face," Carpenter said,
describing her sister's symptoms. "You can't breath. Even talking takes energy."
Although Layton is weak, she uses her energy and quick wit to banter with her
older sister. Layton enjoys sharing details about her sister's recovery.
She is not anxious to follow her sister's path, although Carpenter wants her
to feel as good as she does now.
"That's the best news you can give me," Carpenter said.
But the family knows Layton's recovery depends on another family's grief.
"I'm in awe of the decision that the Millers made and that Lindsay made,"
said Carpenter's mother, Darlene Garner. "I know it's just so hard for them to
make that decision. Thank goodness for those people."
GRAPHIC: Elizabeth Carpenter (left), 24, of Magee received a donor heart from
Mississippi College student Lindsey Miller, who was killed in a September auto
accident. Elizabeth suffered from a condition known as cardiomyopathy that also
afflicts her younger sister Katie Layton, 21. Soon, Layton expects to be placed
on a waiting list for her own heart transplant. Joe Ellis, The Clarion-Ledger;
ON THE LIST; Candidates awaiting donor organs, by organ, in the United States as
of Dec. 10: *All - 87,366 *Kidney - 60,356 *Pancreas - 1,664 *Kidney, pancreas
-2,441 *Liver - 17,394 *Intestine - 196 *Heart - 3,314 *Lung - 3,929 *Heart,
lung - 172 The category "all candidates" is less than the sum because some are
waiting for multiple organs. Source: United Network for Organ Sharing
LOAD-DATE: December 21, 2004
********** Email Completed **********
Time of Delivery: December 21, 2004 03:47 PM EST
Email Number: 1862:24781061
***************************************
All Rights Reserved
The Clarion-Ledger
December 20, 2004 Monday
SECTION: MAIN; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 851 words
HEADLINE: Out of the abundance of a heart
BYLINE: Lora Hines, [email protected]
BODY:
Decision saves Magee woman
INSIDE
*Donor's family meets recipient, 7A
By Lora Hines
MAGEE - Lindsay Miller tooled along I-10, full of life, as she headed with
her twin brother, boyfriend and other friends to her 10-year-old brother's
birthday party in Pascagoula.
Elizabeth Carpenter, barely able to walk the 62 steps to the mailbox at the
end of her driveway in Magee, was feeling her life fading.
In the seconds of squealing tires and Miller's desperate effort to regain
control of her Toyota 4Runner, Miller's life ebbed and soon flowed into
Carpenter's.
On Sept. 12, Carpenter received the heart belonging to Miller, a young woman
who dreamed of becoming a world-traveling journalist.
"We will forever be bonded," Carpenter said. "She wanted to be an organ and
tissue donor. She had to be amazing. She was a very smart girl. She had so many
positive things in her life. I think I would live my life in a way she would
approve of."
Before the transplant, Carpenter's weight, normally around 95 to 100 pounds,
had dropped to 82. The petite 24-year-old no longer had energy to wash her long
hair or brush her teeth.
First diagnosed at 11, Carpenter always knew the genetic disease from which
she and her younger sister suffer gradually would destroy her heart.
At the time, Carpenter said it didn't occur to her how bad things had gotten.
"You don't realize not everybody feels this way," she said. "I thought I was
getting older. I had to admit that I was sick."
On July 13, Carpenter was placed on the state's heart transplant list.
On Sept. 10, Miller was driving on I-10 East when a vehicle swerved into her
path, forcing her to move out of the way, Biloxi police said. Miller lost
control of the 4Runner she was driving and hit a concrete embankment before
rolling several times.
Miller, her boyfriend, Maksim Sisoev, a 20-year-old foreign exchange student
from Uzbekistan, and Elizabeth Finch, 19, of Clinton, died. Miller's twin
brother, Josh, and Nicole Thurman, 19, of Picayune were hurt.
Krystal Marie Teston, 21, of Florida has been charged with four counts of
felony aggravated DUI.
Carpenter and Miller's family have corresponded. They have not met. People
who know the Millers said the family still is grieving. The family isn't
prepared to speak publicly.
Sunday was Josh's birthday. It would have been Lindsay's, too.
James Laird of the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency said some donor families
never communicate with their recipients.
"Donor families are just happy to receive a card," he said.
Laird's son, Jonathan, now 13, received a liver transplant in 1992 when he
was 7 months old. The organ came from a year-old boy who died from a brain
tumor.
The donor family has not contacted the Lairds.
"I still send them things, and I never get anything back," he said. "That's
OK, too."
Besides Carpenter and her sister, Katie Layton, the family disease -
idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis - also has attacked a couple of
great-uncles and cousins. The disease gradually causes the heart muscle to
become too thick to properly function.
"At first, it's not that bad," Carpenter said. "You function normally." As
the heart becomes thicker, it begins to fail.
Carpenter is the first in her family to receive a heart transplant.
Carpenter's family thought she would die before Christmas without the
transplant. She married her husband, Terry, five weeks after she was placed on
the transplant list.
The couple's hometown of about 4,200 helped plan and celebrate their Aug. 7
wedding. People brought food. Her pharmacist filmed the event.
"The entire Magee community pulled the wedding together," Carpenter said. "It
was the most beautiful wedding I've ever seen."
Meanwhile, she prayed for her heart. "I asked, 'Whoever my donor is, let them
have a Christian heart. God can help their family heal.'
"Lindsay was the perfect person in every aspect," Carpenter said.
Since her transplant, she has gained 30 pounds. Her gaunt face has
transformed into a "moon face," she said, because of medication she takes to
prevent rejection of her donor heart.
Carpenter's new-found energy, she said, "is really amazing to me."
Now Layton, 21, is waiting to get on the transplant list. Layton, diagnosed
with her family's heart disease at 9, feels as weak as her sister did before her
transplant.
"It feels like someone is holding a pillow to her face," Carpenter said,
describing her sister's symptoms. "You can't breath. Even talking takes energy."
Although Layton is weak, she uses her energy and quick wit to banter with her
older sister. Layton enjoys sharing details about her sister's recovery.
She is not anxious to follow her sister's path, although Carpenter wants her
to feel as good as she does now.
"That's the best news you can give me," Carpenter said.
But the family knows Layton's recovery depends on another family's grief.
"I'm in awe of the decision that the Millers made and that Lindsay made,"
said Carpenter's mother, Darlene Garner. "I know it's just so hard for them to
make that decision. Thank goodness for those people."
GRAPHIC: Elizabeth Carpenter (left), 24, of Magee received a donor heart from
Mississippi College student Lindsey Miller, who was killed in a September auto
accident. Elizabeth suffered from a condition known as cardiomyopathy that also
afflicts her younger sister Katie Layton, 21. Soon, Layton expects to be placed
on a waiting list for her own heart transplant. Joe Ellis, The Clarion-Ledger;
ON THE LIST; Candidates awaiting donor organs, by organ, in the United States as
of Dec. 10: *All - 87,366 *Kidney - 60,356 *Pancreas - 1,664 *Kidney, pancreas
-2,441 *Liver - 17,394 *Intestine - 196 *Heart - 3,314 *Lung - 3,929 *Heart,
lung - 172 The category "all candidates" is less than the sum because some are
waiting for multiple organs. Source: United Network for Organ Sharing
LOAD-DATE: December 21, 2004
********** Email Completed **********
Time of Delivery: December 21, 2004 03:47 PM EST
Email Number: 1862:24781061
***************************************
Comment