Westport woman to donate 60 percent of her liver to friend

liver411

By:Fredrika Ward, Staff Writer September 05, 2002




Mona Robison describes many thoughts going through her head during a routine drive down the Merritt Parkway last February.
The 52-year-old Westport resident said she was pondering disjointed questions, like what to cook for dinner and the odds of her children ever willingly deciding to clean their rooms, when an opportunity for spiritual atonement presented itself to her.


Robison's karmic debt will be repaid on Sept. 16 when she is scheduled to undergo a five-hour surgery to have 60 percent of her healthy liver removed. Surgeons at Manhattan's Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital will then transplant this portion of Robison's liver into the body of her critically-ill friend, Norwalk resident Steve Leas. Leas will be granted the opportunity to see his 12-year-old daughter grow up and Robison's liver will regenerate within 6-8 weeks.


An obstetrics nurse for 15 years and the operator of a private Rieki (healing massage therapy) practice for four years, Robison says she considers herself a "bringer of comfort" trained in "caring for the whole person." Also a believer in reincarnation and karma, Robison says she often takes "spiritual inventory" of herself to see if she is giving enough of herself to make up for mistakes she, as a human being, has made.


On that day in February, Robison says two separate thoughts came together to give her the inspiration she was looking for. She says she was thinking about her best friend of five years, Beth Leas, and her friend's husband Steve. Steve had been living with Hepatitis C for more than 10 years. The virus developed into cirrhosis and in 1999, the 45-year-old father and husband was told that without a transplant, he had one or two years to live. With a waiting list of 17,000, and only 4,000 livers available a year, the chances of a full transplant were discouragingly slim.


Robison also remembered a positive thought about the situation. She recalled her friend Beth telling her about the development of a new liver transplant method through which a living donor can donate a portion of his or liver without permanent damage to the donor.


Continuing her search for balance, Robison's second thought was focused on possible ways to redeem herself on the karmic wheel.


For three months, the Westporter mulled her idea in private. After considering possible flaws, she decided that it was "the right time and place to do it." With a husband, two sons, and two step-sons aged 16, 17, 18, and 19, Robison says she is at a time in her life when no one is directly dependent on her income. And with a success rate around 90 percdnt, the 13-year old procedure is not especially dangerous.


Robison says that in addition to her desire to help her friend and herself, she hopes that by doing this she will raise awareness of the need for people to donate organs. She said that while it is never pleasant to talk about death, it is simply not enough to have "donor" stamped on one's driver's license. In order to make organs, such as a liver, heart, pancreas, eyes, or skin, available for donation after death, the donor must discuss the issue with his or her family and give authorization.


Robison said the best way to make organs available is to leave them in a will. "You don't have to rearrange your life," says Robison, "but after death [organ donation] gives you a chance to recycle yourself."


Some organs are more complicated to donate than others. Livers have a relatively high compatibility, which is why Robison was able to donate hers to someone unrelated to her. She encourages those interested in becoming donors to contact the CT Coalition for Organ and Tissue Donation at 1-800-754-5550.


"If nothing else, people can donate blood," Robison says. After the post-911 blood-giving frenzy, the number of blood donations has dropped so dramatically this summer that hospitals have been canceling all elective surgeries. Robison says that a person can donate blood six times a year. For information on how and where to give blood, call the American Red Cross at 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-4483-5433).



©Westport Minuteman 2002