On July 22, 2008, Angel received a liver, bowel, and pancreas transplant.  Although the organs are currently “safely” inside his body, the transplant journey was harrowing, and Angel’s recovery has only just barely begun.

The transplant that Angel received was an exceptionally risky one, one whose success rate is low (just 50% of transplants “succeed” long-term, and 90% of bowl transplant recipients experience some kind of “failure”) and whose recovery time is long (months and months).  

Even after receiving the middle-of-the-night phone call that there were organs for Angel, his parents, Sarah and Nick, still didn’t know what to expect. When the transplant team arrived to inspect the organs, there remained the possibility that they would deem them imperfect.  The organs would then need to be flown across the country to Angel, when they would be reassessed again to determine if they were just right.  If it seemed that they were, Angel would be taken into surgery… but after he’d been opened up and the doctors had gotten a chance to look inside, there was STILL the possibility that the transplant itself would not take place.

Despite not knowing if the transplant would really happen, Angel was rushed to the hospital two hours from his home.  Upon arriving at the hospital, Angel was given a set of chest/abdomen xrays, an EKG, tons of labs, medications, “golightly” to "prep the bowel" for surgery, etc.  Then everyone waited, caught between trying to prepare themselves for the prospect of Angel undergoing a complicated surgery that would be followed by months of grueling recovery… and yet knowing that there was still the distinct possibility the organs wouldn’t be acceptable, and no transplant would take place! 

While putting on brave faces, Nick and Sarah also struggled to cope with their conflicting feelings.  They were acutely aware that another family had lost a child in order for these organs to be available to Angel.  They recognized that the transplant was something that Angel needed and possibly could save his life.  But everything was so new.  The decline had been so fast, and Angel had only been on the transplant wait list for 13 days, hardly allowing them enough time to fully accept his current condition, much less prepare themselves for how to handle the actual surgery and recovery.

By 5 p.m., after nearly 12 hours at the hospital, Sarah and Nick received the “all systems go.”  Angel was admitted to surgery at 7:30 p.m. for a liver, bowel, and pancreas transplant.  The surgery lasted approximately ten hours and, although all of the organs were successfully transplanted, the surgeons were unable to “close” the incision, leaving his abdomen open and his organs covered in Gore-Tex.

Amazingly, within two days post-op, Angel was extubated (breathing on his own) and receiving minimal pain medications.  Although he was groggy and floated in and out of sleep, he was also lucid enough to hold conversations with his family, to smile, to even joke a little.  While the doctors have been astounded by his incredible progress, Nick, Sarah, Hudson, and everyone who knows him are not: Angel has always been a superhero.  Why should a transplant change that?  ;o)

That said, this journey is far from over.  Angel had a second surgery to partially close his incision, but even once it is entirely closed, there is no guarantee that his new organs will function properly. Angel will likely remain an inpatient at the hospital for 3-6 weeks, followed by another 6-8 weeks in a facility ten minutes from the hospital.  At that point, Angel will likely go home, but will be required to go to the hospital (two hours away) three times each week for several months. 

Although the road is long and will undoubtedly involve turns that no one can anticipate, Angel’s family remains incredibly optimistic. Despite the extraordinarily difficult and painful life Angel has experienced in his short eight-and-a-half years, Sarah reports that he has never – not once, ever! – been in so much as a bad mood.  That’s simply not who Angel is.  They have incredible faith in Angel himself, who is nothing short of a walking miracle every single day.  And they have incredible faith in a God who they know has a plan, and who will guide them every step of the way.

No one knows what exactly the future holds.  But one thing remains certain: