LIVER TRANSPLANT TIMELY GIFT FOR SCOTT CITY FAMILY

SCOTT CITY -- The richest birthday icing Chaundra Mason ever tasted arrived in the form of a thumbs-up sign from organ transplant surgeons at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Chaundra and her husband, Michael of Scott City were able to breathe a collective sigh of relief upon learning the liver transplant their 10-month-old daughter, Summer Nicole, received was a success last Thursday.

"I couldn't think of a better present than to hear that the surgery was a success," Mason, who turned 24 last Friday, said. "Summer Nicole isn't out of the woods yet, but she has been taken out of intensive care and things are starting to look pretty good."

Doctors will watch for any infection or signs Summer's body is rejecting the organ.

"It's a day-to-day kind of thing for a while," Chaundra said.

Summer's wait for a new liver began last November when her condition, called biliary atresia, was deemed critical. She was born without bowel ducts that are attached from the liver to intestines.

"She was getting pretty bad," Chaundra said. When Summer arrived at the hospital last Tuesday, doctors thought they would have to feed her through a tube. "Because she wasn't gaining weight and started looking pretty bad, they upped Summer Nicole's status and began a more intense search for a liver that could be matched up to her," Chaundra said.

Michael Mason, who works for Columbia Sportswear in Chaffee, was in Portland, Ore., on business when he realized his daughter would be getting a new liver. "I was so happy when I got the call Wednesday night," he said.

He makes afternoon trips to St. Louis Children's Hospital to check on his daughter's condition.

"I can only stay for an hour, then I have to turn around and go back," he said. "It's worth it, though, to see her doing well."

This being national organ and tissue donor awareness week, various activities will take place throughout the state. On Thursday the eighth annual Cape Girardeau organ and tissue donor awareness week will take place with a 6 p.m. walk to the Riverfront Park Pavilion on Main Street across from Hutson Furniture Co.

Registration for the walk will be at 5 p.m. at the KFVS television station.

A short presentation will be made at the pavilion. Refreshments will be served and attendance prizes awarded. Mollie's restaurant in downtown Cape Girardeau has donated a gift certificate for dinner for two as an attendance prize.

The purpose of the national observance is to encourage people to learn about organ and tissue donation and discuss their wishes with family members.

"It's important that you make sure your family knows you want to donate an organ because that's the only way it can happen," Chaundra Mason said. "I thought all I had to do was sign the back of my driver's license. But that can be overruled by the family."

Senior organ procurement coordinator with Mid-America Transplant Service, Margit Bilgrim, said the march was to make area residents aware of the need for donated organs and tissue."

There are nearly 800 people in the Mid-America Transplant Service area, which includes Missouri, Southern Illinois and northeastern Arkansas, and more than 38,000 nationwide waiting for lifesaving transplants.

"Unfortunately eight of these people die each day because of the shortage of donated organs," Bilgrim said.

The transplant service attributes the growth in the waiting list to advances in medical technology. Because transplant surgery has become so successful, more people are being considered as transplant candidates and are being placed on waiting lists.

A single donor can save or improve the lives of 40 to 50 people by donating up to seven vital organs. Those include the heart, both kidneys, both lungs, the liver and pancreas, two eyes for corneal transplants. Bone and soft tissues donors could help 30 to 40 others.