Transplant ‘gifts' add pressure

Teenagers who receive transplanted organs enjoy the gift of life and bear special burdens, experts and adolescents said Saturday at the Nebraska Medical Center's transplant reunion.

At a time that is awkward under normal circumstances, teens who have received livers and other organs must take multiple medications, deal with overprotective parents and be told repeatedly that they're lucky.

The annual transplant reunion for the first time held a separate, four-hour session strictly for teenagers. About 650 transplant recipients attended the event at the Holiday Inn convention center at 72nd and Grover Streets.

“And everybody reminds you that you've got this gift,” Dr. Wendy Grant, Nebraska Medical Center transplant surgeon, told the approximately 20 adolescents and children who attended the teen session. “That's a lot of pressure.” Grant said about one in five transplant patients are children.

Debb Andersen, manager of the liver and intestinal transplant program, said research has revealed an uptick in the death rate of transplant patients when they are in their late teens. The cause appears to be organ rejection from patients' failure to take their medications.

Mitchell Robbins, 13, of Huntsville, Ark., said he went through a stretch last year in which he wasn't consistent in taking his anti-rejection medication, acid reflux medicine and other pills. “I kept forgetting,” he said.

Knowing how important his medicines are, he has gotten on top of that problem, said Mitchell, who had a liver transplant at the Medical Center seven years ago.

Teens sometimes seek to avoid their medications' side effects, such as headaches and nausea. Sometimes they're busy and don't remember to take their medicines.

Andersen said that 15 years ago, transplant centers focused mainly on keeping alive their young transplant patients. “Now we need to think about their broader health — how to take care of that transplant organ for life,” she said.

She said she hoped the teen session would help some of the kids connect with others who have been through similar medical crises.

That's what Mitchell Robbins' mother hopes for, too. She said she was delighted when she learned the transplant reunion this year would include a teen session.

“I thought it would give him the opportunity to meet other children of the same age that are in the same boat he's in,” Cathleen Robbins said.

The teen session included games, lunch and speakers, such as Omaha mixed-martial arts competitor Houston Alexander.

Alexander donated a kidney to his daughter E`lan seven years ago. E`lan, now 17, lost that kidney, in part because she didn't take her medicines, her father said. E`lan, who attended the session, received a new kidney last year and graduated from Omaha North in the spring.

Mitchell Robbins said in an interview that being a transplant recipient means trying hard to prevent scratches from becoming infected. Infections can be hazardous for him because anti-rejection medicine hampers the body's immune system, and thus its ability to fight infections.

His condition makes him feel somewhat different from other kids, he said. “I can't do as much as they can,” he said. For instance, he said, he can't play football.

His mom said she wouldn't have let Mitchell play football even if he hadn't had a liver transplant. She said she's “very protective” of her son.

“But I'm working at that,” she said.

Last month, Mitchell played in his first softball game, at a church camp. “He's done a lot of growing,” his mother said. “And so have I.”

Contact the writer:

444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com