CHILD GETS DOUBLE LUNG TRANSPLANT

An 8-year-old Cape Girardeau girl was recuperating in a St. Louis hospital after receiving a double lung transplant Monday afternoon.

Jalisa Durham received the transplant to treat a potentially deadly lung disease she developed because of cystic fibrosis.

Just a little over two weeks ago, Jalisa enjoyed a shopping spree in Cape Girardeau, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

"The surgery was pretty quick -- faster than usual, as a matter of fact," said Dr. Steve Shapiro, director of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at St. Louis Children's Hospital. "There were absolutely no complications."

Jalisa, who has been on a donor list since May, was admitted to the hospital Sunday night after being notified that donor lungs were available. She went into surgery at 11 a.m. Monday and was finished by 2 p.m. Similar surgeries typically take six to eight hours, Shapiro said.

The donor lungs were flown to St. Louis and reattached, one at a time.

Jalisa's grandmother, Regina Jones, said the hospital paged her Sunday around 6 p.m., but Jalisa was the one who actually heard the beep.

"I was out on the porch, and she heard the beeper," Jones said. "She came and got me when it went off."

Monday evening, Jones said she was feeling good about the transplant.

"Everything fell into place. I thought I would be a nervous wreck, but everything went great," Jones said.

"Jalisa is really doing well. She's breathing a whole lot better than she was before the transplant. I'm just tickled pink."

Shapiro said Jalisa's breathing is being mechanically assisted to allow her to rest. He said she also will be kept heavily sedated for the next few days so that she will not feel discomfort from the surgery.

During that time, Shapiro said, doctors will remove tubes from Jalisa's body, and if things go well they will allow her to wake up.

She could be transferred to a regular room next week "assuming everything goes as well as we expect," Shapiro said. If things go well in the following week or two, she could leave the hospital.

Shapiro said the family will be asked to stay in St. Louis for about three months while Jalisa meets daily with doctors and physical therapists at the hospital.

"After three months, we will do one last evaluation and let her go home," he said, adding that Jalisa will still have to meet with doctors every three months, then every six months, then yearly.

According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Web site, the disease is genetic and affects about 30,000 people in the United States. It causes the body to produce an unusually thick, sticky mucus because of faulty transport of salt in cells that line organs, such as the lungs and pancreas, to their outer surfaces.

Cystic fibrosis can affect many different organs because it is a systemic disease.

"What really kills with CF is the lung disease, almost uniformly," Shapiro said. "Some patients have a very mild course, and some have a very severe course. But in the end it's the lung disease that kills the vast majority of the patients.

"In Jalisa's case, she had a very bad case of lung disease. It was very aggressive in her."

Shapiro said he does not expect any complications from the surgery. However, problems could arise if Jalisa's body rejects the new lung.

"It's the chronic rejection phenomenon that makes it complicated," Shapiro said. "We're really replacing one imminently deadly disease with another one."

Shapiro said Jalisa will be monitored for rejection and will have to take suppressive medication for the rest of her life.

Lung transplants are becoming increasingly common in children Jalisa's age. In 1994, six children between the ages of 6 and 10 received lung transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. In 1997, 13 children received them, and in 1998, 10 children received lung transplants.