Sophomore Janelle Frahm’s life has been filled with hundreds of stressful hospital visits, but they all left her and her family frustrated and without answers.
At the age of six, Frahm became very sick and began vomiting blood. This was obviously very concerning to her parents.
However, because the blood was black and looked nothing like the bright red stuff you see on TV, “we didn’t actually know I was bleeding for a few months, which is really bad and I could’ve died,” Frahm said.
After several months of unknown internal bleeding, doctors moved quickly to search for a cause of Frahm’s life-threatening condition.
Doctors decided to take a Magnetic Resonant Image (MRI) which finally gave the family some answers. It showed that Frahm’s spleen was enlarged which lead doctors to the conclusion that Frahm suffered from Cirrhosis.
Cirrhosis of the liver is fairly common, with roughly 200,000 cases per year in the United States. The condition can be caused by various ailments such as excessive alcoholism or hepatitis that can lead to the scarring of the liver. For Frahm, the cause of her Cirrhosis is unknown.
“During the MRIs this past summer they saw that there were lesions, which are little spots, on my liver,” Frahm said.
Doctors speculated that these three cm lesions might be tumors. They suggested that Frahm should begin thinking about a liver transplant.
When a patient gets placed on a transplant list they receive a score numbered from zero to 40. This score determines how sick they are and how much the patient is in need of a transplant, and ultimately decides how high up they are on the waiting list.
“Early December 2018 I got put on the list but late December they changed my score,” Frahm said.
First, Frahm received a score of 10. Later, her score was bumped up to 30 because of the size of her lesions.
Almost three months later, Frahm got word that she would receive a new liver.
Frahm vividly remembers Saturday, March 2, when she had some friends over to meet her new kittens. When the phone rang, Frahm picked it up. It was her mom who said that the doctor had called.
There was a liver ready for her.
Early Sunday March 3, at Michigan Medicine hospital in Ann Arbor, Frahm was taken to get prepped for surgery. Doctors finished the operation five hours later.
After eight weeks of doctor’s visits, Frahm was cleared to come back to school.
Since Frahm’s transplant, her life is fairly normal except for a few limitations.
Due to her anti-rejection medication, she cannot eat certain fruits such as kiwi, grapefruit, and pomegranates. This is because of her body’s weakened immune system.
By doctor’s orders, to keep her liver safe, she is not allowed to play contact sports and swim in unchlorinated water.
But these restrictions do not diminish the life-saving procedure she was granted.
Not all are as lucky as Frahm. Currently, there are around 17,000 people in critical need of a liver transplant. In 2014 only 2.3% of liver transplant candidates received their procedure. On average, every day 8 people die waiting for a new liver in the United States.
Becoming an organ donor takes less than a minute and can save or change up to 100 people’s lives.
