Health

Very special guests were honored at the celebration


IU Health’s abdominal transplant team recently celebrated the success of the past year and honored transplant heroes.

By IU Health Senior Journalist, TJ Banes, tfender1@iuhealth.org

On a recent weekday, 4-year-old Beckett Culp took a break from spontaneous hugs and sat down at her desk to draw a piece of art. He joined the art table with Dr. Jonathan Fridell of IU Health, chief of abdominal transplantation and director of pancreatic transplant surgery at IU Health.

For a few minutes, Beckett was a normal child, but soon he would climb onto a stool to stand on the podium. His audience was an auditorium filled with doctors, nurses, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, and other members of IU Health’s transplant team.

The group gathered for an annual program celebrating the achievements of the abdominal transplant program.

One of those shining stars was Beckett, who attended the show with parents Klark and Lauren Culp in Noblesville. Six months ago, Dr. Richard Mangus, a surgeon with IU Health, performed a liver transplant on Beckett. He was also under the care of a pediatric hepatologist, Dr. Jean Molleston.

“He doesn’t know a stranger,” his mother told the audience. He works in the room to hug and share his candy. Beckett was shortlisted for transplant in February 2022 when he was diagnosed with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AAT). The genetic condition causes damage to the liver and lungs.

“He was in the hospital for 11 days and by day five he was running the lobby of Riley Hospital,” his mother said. “We are so grateful to Dr. Mangus and Dr. Molleston, and his transplant coordinator Angi Dickens.” As Lauren Culp was speaking, photos emerged of Beckett wearing a homemade turkey hat at Thanksgiving. Thank you and unload merchandise from his birthday toy drive at Riley Hospital.

When speaking to an audience of caregivers, he only said three words: “Thank you, everyone.”

IU Health is one of the leading transplant hospitals in the country. More than 500 transplants are performed annually. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, by 2021, IU Health’s transplant program will account for 83% of all transplants performed statewide. As of November 2022, IU Health has performed 222 kidney transplants, 149 liver transplants, 19 pancreas transplants and 9 bowel transplants. In addition, the IU Health thoracic transplant team performed 12 heart transplants and 25 lung transplants.

Samantha Croymans, who attended the celebration with her son Max Croymans, 7, and boyfriend Brian Moreman, said: “My transplant team is like my family. She was cared for by Dr. Fridell when she underwent a kidney and pancreas transplant in 2018. She had been battling diabetes problems for over 20 years and was pregnant with her son when she kidney failure. She had been on hemodialysis for nearly three years before receiving the transplant.

Croymans said: “I am both happy and sad at the loss of the donor. “I think about all the things I might have missed without the transplant – trips to the zoo, watching my son grow up. He’s been my rock and every day I’m grateful to the team that kept me alive to be the mother of my son.”

newsofmax

News of max: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button
Immediate Matrix Immediate Maximum