Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 10, 1992 TAG: 9203100052
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The clock was reset Saturday at the Medical College of Virginia when Leona Elliott finally had the long-awaited transplant. She was in stable condition Monday, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
It's still early to tell; but doctors are pleased, so far, with her response to the liver, Stan Elliott said in a telephone interview from the hospital.
Leona Elliott, 51, was in the intensive care unit in a sterilized room to keep out germs, he said. "She looks like a robot," because of all the equipment she's hooked up to.
Elliott got a call from the hospital Friday night around 8 when he was at Wal-Mart continuing to raise money for his wife's medical expenses, he said. He sped his wife to Richmond, arriving around 1 a.m. The operation was under way by 8 a.m. Saturday, he said.
Elliott said he can't thank enough the people who donated money.
"Those who gave a dollar and those who gave me a quarter and those who just gave," he said. "If we never get another dime, we got this far."
The medical bills will continue to grow by almost $18,000 a day to cover costs, including rejection medicine, he said. He fears people will stop donating because the transplant has been done.
The Elliotts, who had no private medical insurance, raised almost $40,000 for the operation. They had originally planned to go to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, but that hospital required $80,000 before it would consider Elliott for a transplant.
When the Elliotts learned that MCV would accept a down payment of $30,000, she transferred there in August.
The operation was estimated to cost $150,000.
Leona Elliott was under government Medicaid, but it didn't cover liver transplants. She became eligible for Medicare on Sept. 1, which she and the hospital had hoped would pay the remaining cost of the transplant. However, MCV's application to Medicare still is pending, so the bill remains in the Elliotts' hands.
Stan Elliott, who quit his job to spend more time with his wife and raise money, also has continued to raise awareness of transplants and the need for donors, he said.
He is considering joining the Liver Foundation to teach the public about transplants, he said. But the next year will be spent at Leona's side helping in her recovery.
Leona Elliott became ill in 1987 after she contracted hepatitis from a blood transfusion during open-heart surgery 15 years earlier. She was not given Medicaid and Social Security disability until August 1989.
by CNB