Friend’s generosity leads to liver transplant

• Laura Toby’s best friend Christie Hill pledged a portion of her liver to save Toby’s life.
• The transplant surgery went well, but the liver section didn’t regenerate as expected.
• Having had a living-donor surgery, doctors said Toby was eligible for a cadaver organ transplant.
• Toby received a new liver Nov. 18 and is recovering at a Chicago hospital.

Family isn’t always a blessing of birth, but of friendship.

This Thanksgiving, two area families are celebrating the gift of friendship and the gift of life because Christie DeBruler Hill was willing to share a section of her liver with her best friend, Laura Alderson Toby.

Although the liver section transplant from Hill to Toby ultimately failed, it made it possible for Toby to receive a second, whole liver transplant from a cadaver donor.

Toby, a teacher at Test Middle School, is now recovering from the two transplant surgeries at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

“Everyone keeps telling me, ‘You’re going to be blessed so much through this.’ I don’t care about anything except for seeing Laura get this ... for her to be the mommy that she deserves to be to her 8-year-old daughter,” said Hill, who has two daughters of her own. “Just being able to see her live her life, that’s important to me.”

Toby and Hill met seventh grade at Centerville Junior High School.

“We’ve shared a lot in common,” Hill said. “We were both in band and choir. We both graduated in 1997 from Centerville High School.

“Her family and my family, we’ve always been close. We kind of consider each other family,” Hill said.

It was late spring when Hill learned from Toby that she needed a living-donor liver transplant and that Toby’s sisters and parents, for various reasons, were not eligible donors.

As Toby listed the requirements for a donor, “I’m checking off everything in my head,” Hill said. “I thought, ‘Oh, OK, I’m a match.’”

She told Toby, “I don’t have much money to donate to help you out but I do have the liver ... if that’s what you need.”

Toby, 36, was diagnosed seven years ago with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a rare disease that causes deterioration of liver function.

A year later, she was diagnosed with melanoma, a serious type of skin cancer and beat it successfully.

Because of her cancer history, she didn’t qualify for a traditional liver transplant from a cadaver, or deceased, donor. Toby’s only answer was a living-donor transplant.

Living-donor transplants are much more complicated and labor intensive, and thus, more expensive. Since living-donor transplants are not performed at the hospital in her health network, she traveled frequently to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago for tests, consultations and, eventually, the surgery.

Hill, 35, was verified as a match for Toby by August, but the living-donor transplant wasn’t scheduled until Nov. 12.

During the summer and fall, friends, family and co-workers rallied around Toby, creating the “Toby Tuff” website and a Facebook page, and having multiple fund-raisers to help with the costs related to the transplant, such as co-pays, deductibles, travel expenses and a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs.

At 6:06 p.m. Oct. 24, Toby posted this message on the Toby Tuff Facebook page: “Transplant day is quickly approaching and needless to say there is a lot of planning and preparing to to. I’m trying to prepare myself mentally, physically, and spirituality for this. This is going to change so many lives for the better. Please continue to pray daily for Christie and me and all those involved in this process. These final few weeks could prove to be the biggest challenge thus far. Waiting is the hardest part.”

On the eve of the transplant, at 10:38 p.m. on Nov. 11, Toby used Facebook to deliver this message: “This Dorothy has bravely made her way back to the Emerald City. She has defeated the Wicked Witch and has come back for the wizard to grant her request. She has met so many characters along her journey. She met a brave lion who helped her find the courage to continue, a brainy scarecrow who gave her knowledge to use as a tool, and a tin man with a heart of gold that gave her the most precious gift of all ... love.

“This Dorothy would have never made it to the end of the yellow brick road if it hadn’t been for all the tiny pieces coming together to fit just right at the right time. This Dorothy is ready to click her ruby slippers together and begin a new beginning full of endless possibilities and wonder. Ready to start my new adventure in a few short hours. I love you all. Thanks for flying over the rainbow with me.”

On the morning of the living-donor transplant, Toby and Hill posed in their pajamas for pictures with family members and observed a moment of prayer with Hill’s pastor via smart phone. Photos and video were posted to the Facebook page.

The long, complicated dual surgeries began shortly after 10 a.m.

Updates posted on Facebook chronicled the progress:

•2:53 p.m. Nov. 12: “Christie and Laura are doing great! Christie’s sectioned liver is now being processed and preparing to insert it in Laura’s body. Christie should be another hour to finish her surgery.”

•3:22 p.m. Nov. 12: Christie is out of surgery and doing great! They are starting the liver transplant with Laura.

•6:26 p.m. Nov. 12: “Laura has two more hours of surgery. They are attaching the Y vein and bile duct. All is looking good! Christie is awake and talking to her family. She is happy to hear that Laura is progressing so well.”

•9:07 p.m. Nov. 12: “Great news! The doctor just gave us beautiful news. Laura is doing well and is getting final sewn up. Surgery was a huge success. She will be sedated overnight and they will wake her early tomorrow morning. Tears of joy are flowing.”

•12:20 a.m. Nov. 13: “The status of Laura was just updated. She is moving from the surgery room to ICU. (Toby’s husband) Chris saw her wheeled down the ICU hallway. Such a happy moment for him!”

•9:03 a.m. Nov. 13: “Laura’s breathing tube was removed this morning. They woke her up this morning. We’ll update after her family talks to her.”

•12:43 p.m. Nov. 13: “Continuing the recovery in ICU. Breathing on her own, awake and alert. First thing Laura asked when she awoke is, ‘Is Christie OK? When can I see her?’”

•4:48 p.m. Nov. 13: “Christie is out of ICU and doing terrific! Her and her husband are planning to take a slow, short walk around the hospital floor tonight. Laura continues to improve and will stay in ICU for a bit longer. She looks great! Her new liver is cleansing her body and her color is looking better and better every hour.”

•12:17 p.m. Nov. 14: “Laura is progressing in her recovery. ICU is still her home for now. She is happy that she might get some water today. Her husband and loving family are by her side seeing her through her recovery. Keep up those prayers! The liver twins got a chance to chat for a minute yesterday. Christie got wheeled into Laura’s room and they laid side by side and held hands. A tender moment for sure.”

Frighteningly, Laura didn’t continue to bounce back from the transplant.

On Nov. 14, she went back into surgery to clamp off a vein to improve blood flow to her new liver. It was regenerating from Hill’s donation, but not quickly enough.

By 8:30 p.m. Nov. 16, Toby’s doctors had made the decision to put her on the national transplant registry that she was now eligible for, having had a living-donor transplant.

A Facebook entry noted, “Her perseverance and faith has gotten her this far and we pray that it will get her through this too. She is constantly surrounded by her family as we wait for the call. As their daughter says every night at bedtime ‘God bless Mommy and everybody that Mommy loves.’”

Hill doesn’t remember much of what went on in those first few days after the surgery. She was often sick to her stomach, which doctors later decided was caused by how quickly her liver regenerated.

She now knows that some of the pre-surgery assumptions were wrong. Toby’s liver disease was more advanced than realized and Hill’s liver was smaller than predicted, making it more difficult to remove a section.

With Toby’s post-surgery problems, having a cadaver transplant became an available life-saving option.

Hill doesn’t regret her donation. She knows that if she had not done it, Toby would have remained ineligible for a transplant.

At 5:32 a.m. Nov. 18, Chris Toby posted on Facebook that the transplant team had called to say they had a potential liver for his wife that they were going to inspect. “Prayers that it is!” he said.

It was nearly 12 hours before Toby’s second transplant surgery began.

At 3:22 a.m. Nov. 19, a Facebook post joyfully announced, “Laura made it through surgery again! The new liver is already working and she is regaining use of her kidneys. All good signs. She is one tough cookie.”

By afternoon that day, she was awake and speaking a few words. “The first thing she says to anyone is ‘I love you, I love you!’” a Facebook post said.

Since then, Toby has continued to improve. At 5:13 p.m. Nov. 21, Laura posted on Facebook, “Hey! Everybody I’m back!”

She talked to her daughter, Grace, by telephone for the first time in nearly two weeks Monday and moved from intensive care to a regular room on Tuesday.

By 11:37 p.m. Tuesday, Toby’s positive attitude and growing strength were evident in her Facebook post. “Learning to walk again is tough work. I’m fighting the good fight. I have a new-found respect for toddlers! Everyday it is becoming less difficult. Tomorrow’s goal is to be able to walk into the hallway. Wish me luck!”

Today, miles will separate Toby and Hill, who was released Saturday and returned to her home in Walton, Ky., just south of Cincinnati. Hill plans to spend Thanksgiving quietly with her husband, Louis, and daughters, Alaina, 6, and Norah, 3, and her parents, Becky and Dave DeBruler.

“I’m sore. I’m moving slowly and definitely not doing a whole lot at home,” Hill said.

What she and her family will be doing, and what Toby’s family will be doing in the Chicago hospital, is sharing thankfulness for friends that are like family.

They also will be saying prayers for the family of Toby’s liver donor, who will be missing their loved one at the dinner table this year.

How to get involved

•Even with insurance, Laura Toby and her family will bear many costs of the life-saving transplant including co-pays, deductibles, travel expenses and a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs.

•Tax-deductible donations can be made at online www.helphopelive.org after typing Laura Toby in the campaign search box.

•To continue following Toby’s story, visit www.tobytuff.org or find Toby Tuff on Facebook.

•Cards for Toby may be mailed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Feinberg Pavilion, 251 E. Hurron St., Laura Toby, Room 1112, Chicago, IL 60611.

•Learn more about being an organ donor at www.donatelifeindiana.org