Meaghan undergoes successful double-lung transplant

by Karen Carr Keefe
Grand Island Dispatch - November 5, 2004

“Meaghan’s Miracle” has finally become a reality for 17-year-old Meaghan Grotz. The Grand Island teen received a long-awaited double-lung transplant on Wednesday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

The surgery began about 10:30 a.m. and was completed at 8 p.m., according to her uncle, Dan Drexelius.

“She is doing quite well,” Drexelius said. “She is in serious but stable condition.”

He said doctors are keeping her in a drug-induced coma so she can rest and recover from the difficult surgery. “There’s a lot of swelling, so they don’t want her to move,” Drexelius said. By Saturday or Sunday, the doctors hope to wean her off those medications, but they do not know yet how soon she can return home. However that is not likely to happen before the holidays, he added.

Meaghan’s parents were able to see her for only a couple of minutes following the surgery. Other family members have flown to Pittsburgh to help.

The surgery is a lifesaving one for Meaghan, and everything went as planned, Drexelius said. The Erie County Sheriff’s Department provided an escort to Prior Aviation in Cheektowaga and Meaghan was whisked to Pittsburgh via LifeStar as soon as the donor lungs became available.

“We are ecstatic,” Drexelius said. “She had no alternative” to the transplant surgery. “The medicine didn’t work. It’s a quality of life issue. Her breathing was down to 10 percent. She was a very ill girl.”

Meaghan’s own lungs were weakened as a result of Cystic Fibrosis. She and her family made a plea for help in securing funding for the expensive medical procedure, and the community response has been overwhelming.

On a web site devoted to her, Meaghan wrote, “I refuse to fold, and look forward to the day when I can breathe with my new set of lungs.” Her uncle said Meaghan’s greatest wish is to cross that high school stage and receive her diploma.

Fund-raisers have been held throughout the Grand Island community, and her story has touched the hearts of people throughout Western New York. When word of her surgery was announced at a concert at Grand Island High School on Wednesday night, the audience burst into applause, Drexelius said.

“The support is just unbelievable,” he said. “I want to thank everybody on Grand Island. They have been totally awesome.” Drexelius calls the transplant Meaghan’s “second chance at life.”

He said the donor’s parents had the presence of mind “in a tragic situation to help someone else and donate all the child’s organs.”

Drexelius added he wants people to be aware of the importance of registering as an organ donor and letting your relatives know your wishes. He said there are about 85,000 people on waiting lists for transplant surgery nationwide.