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Wednesday, December 31, 1997

Families meet to share the joy, sadness of successful transplant

By MICHAEL E. YOUNG The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS - They'd never met before, these two moms, but they shared something that would bind them forever:

The heart of Angelina Davis' young son Ernesto beats strongly within Shari's chest. Without that extraordinary gift, Shari - who asked that her last name not be used - never would have had the chance to watch her own little boys grow up.

Almost three years after that lifesaving transplant, the two moms finally met on a recent Saturday morning in a boardroom at a Far North Dallas hotel, nervous, a little uncertain, and desperate to see one another.

As she waited for Mrs. Davis to come down from her room, Shari fidgeted with the TV microphone clipped to her sweater and chatted and smiled at members of the transplant program from Medical City Dallas Hospital.

"Are you ready?" asked Pam Silvestri, of the Southwest Organ Alliance.

"I want a drink of water first," Shari said, clearly nervous now.

A few seconds later, Mrs. Davis stepped tentatively into the room and the two women embraced, a long, tearful hug of joy for the miracle they shared and sadness for what had been lost.

The meeting, long awaited, was part of the "Holidays With Hearts of Angels" celebration at Medical City Dallas, where 100 heart transplants have been performed.

Mrs. Davis brought along an 8-by-10 photo of her son, Ernesto Garza, just 13 when he died in a February 1995 auto accident in his hometown of Victoria, Texas.

"A nice, big smile," said Shari's husband, Eric.

"He has a sparkle in his eyes," Shari said. "That tells you a lot."

The two families - Shari and Eric and Mrs. Davis, her daughter Beatrice Garza and her grandson Lucio - huddled at one end of the big meeting table, exchanging bits of their own histories and sharing the details that brought them together in this room.

Mrs. Davis spoke proudly of her son, a boy fiercely protective of his family, with a fiery temper and a giving heart.

He loved to fish, she said, and would sometimes sneak away from school to cast a line. But if Mrs. Davis was late coming home from work, he would call to make sure she was all right, and sometimes he would meet her to bring her home.

"Do you have a temper?" Mrs. Davis asked Shari shyly.

"I do have more of a temper than I used to," Shari said, laughing.

When his sister Beatrice got her driver's license at 16, Ernesto wondered about the little box for organ donation. Beatrice explained why she had marked "yes," and Ernesto told his mother, "I want to do that."

It was two weeks before he died, Mrs. Davis said.

While Ernesto's death came quickly and unexpectedly, Shari's illness lingered for months and grew progressively worse.

She was several months pregnant with her fourth son, Kendal , feeling tired and weak, when doctors discovered she suffered from a critical heart problem.

Her left ventricle wasn't pumping nearly enough blood, and the heart itself was enlarged, she said.

"They immediately put me on bed rest and suggesting terminating the pregnancy if I was to survive," Shari said. "We refused that recommendation, and I went to bed and stayed there for the next four months."

It wasn't a difficult decision, Shari said, "but it was a hard reality."

"We knew what was right and we knew we couldn't live with with anything else. That would have destroyed us in a different way," she said. "We strongly believe that God doesn't bless you with babies if he won't take care of them."

Shari carried Kendal to term and gave birth without any real problems, though she was so weak at that point, "I could barely lift my arms," she said.

But she and Eric never questioned their decision to have their baby.

"In so many ways, Kendal saved my life," she said. "We don't believe the doctors would have found the heart problem if it hadn't been for my becoming pregnant. It was that extra stress on my body that made it more pronounced. Without Kendal, I probably would have died of congestive heart failure."

After the birth, Shari and Eric were sure she could recover and strengthen her heart with medicine and therapy. But she grew steadily weaker. By Christmas 1994, she was so exhausted, so sick, Shari was convinced it would be her last holiday with her family.

At that point, the left ventricle was pumping at 12 percent of capacity, rather than the typical 60 percent or 70 percent. Shari was dying.

She left her home near McKinney and went into Medical City Dallas Hospital. Her doctors talked of a transplant, but Shari still hoped she could recover.

"They kept asking me if I wanted to talk with someone who had already had a transplant," she said. "I said, 'If I need a transplant, I'll talk with someone. But first, give me the right medicine.' "

On Feb. 5, 1995, Shari's heart stopped. Doctors and nurses worked desperately to keep her alive, performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation for more than two hours and then spending hours more trying to keep her stable.

Late the following night, Eric and Shari learned she'd be getting a new heart.

"The doctors said, 'We think we may have a heart for you, and it's a perfect match,' " Shari said. "Not only was it a perfect match, but they said it was better than they hoped to find even if we had waited six months.

"We felt that God knew," Shari said. "He knew what I needed."

She needed Ernesto Garza's heart.

Surgeons performed the transplant on Feb. 7, Shari's 34th birthday, the beginning of her second life.

She spent 40 days in the hospital, struggling with rejection problems and gradually building her strength. She still tires easily. She may never be as strong as she once was.

But she's alive, and she is with her family, and for that both Shari and Eric thank Angelina Davis and her son.

"You can only say thank you, but it's so much more than thank you," Eric said. "You have to be a really giving person to give such a gift."

But Mrs. Davis said she received a gift, too, when she finally met Shari. She saw Ernesto again.

"To me, he's not dead," Mrs. Davis said softly. "He's still alive in her."

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