A woman needs four organ transplants to survive.
It’s terrifying enough needing a donor for one body part. A 24-year-old woman from Santa Monica requires four organs to live.
Molly Pearce needs a small intestine, pancreas, liver and kidney to survive. All of the sought after body parts must come from a type O donor. Pearce is suffering from a congenital disorder, Hirschsprung's disease.
At the time she was born, she was only one out of a known three people in the entire world to have the condition. Pearce was temporarily able to manage her disease, but several things went wrong.
A strong prescription drug mangled her kidney and small intestine. After receiving transplants, a negative reaction to a blood transfusion caused complete intestinal failure several years later and both transplants were removed. Her pancreas and liver have also been removed and she is on dialysis.
After yet another mishap, she was exposed to a skin-borne infection and she remains in a hospital isolation room, getting her nutrients through a tube. Thankfully a group called, Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation of America has taken up Pearce’s case. They are working to find a donor and save her life.
Hirschsprung's disease is a blockage of the large intestine that occurs when muscles in the bowel cannot push material out as nerves that trigger those muscle contractions are missing.