Liver Transplant Patient Has Special Plans To Celebrate One-Year Mark
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A south suburban woman plans to celebrate the one-year mark of her organ transplant with another milestone -- her wedding!
Melissa Gilbert was on the waiting list for a new liver for 10 months when she received a call from the Loyola Medicine Transplant team on a Friday afternoon last July. A woman on the other end of the phone told her to get to the medical center's Maywood campus from her home in Plainfield in 30 minutes.
"She's like you need to be here, like, yesterday and I said there's no way. I was home by myself, I was in a wheelchair, I couldn't drive and I told her to go ahead and give it to somebody else," Gilbert said.
A transplant van got her there in time and now she's set to marry her fiancé, Tom Farr, July 29th – one year to the day after her surgery.
"Everything she's been through, it's just amazing she's even standing here, so that day is going to be really special," Farr said.
Gilbert spoke at a ceremony at Loyola honoring organ donors. Her transplant was one of 246 the hospital performed last year.