College athlete travels across the country for liver transplant at Pittsburgh's UPMC
Taylor Dockins cried as she listened to UPMC chief of transplantation Dr. Abhi Humar discuss her medical journey.
Humar talked about her perseverance for five years fighting cancer and then learning she needed a liver transplant.
The two connected when she traveled 2,400 miles for the operation.
“Dr. Humar saved my life,” said Dockins, 22, through tears as she stood inside UPMC Montefiore in Oakland. “He is the best at this. I am grateful for every day and every minute of life.”
The surgery was Oct. 1.
Dockins spent two months recovering before returning to her home in Corona, Calif.
Going the distance
Her journey to Pittsburgh began when Dockins, a Division I college softball player at Cal State Fullerton, was competing in a tournament with the Choppers Under-18 travel team in Colorado in July 2016.
She felt severe back pain and had a fever. Her mother, Debi Dockins, took her to the emergency room.
Tests revealed a tumor the size of a grapefruit.
The pair traveled home for surgery at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles.
The tumor from the left side of her liver was removed on July 7, 2016. She was diagnosed with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, a rare liver cancer. Entering her senior year of high school, the right-handed star pitcher went on to set a record for career victories and won the Gatorade National Player of the Year award.
When additional tumors developed the following year, she underwent radiation and chemotherapy. Doctors found another tumor on a vein that carries blood to the heart. The surgery affected her bile system. Bile is a fluid that is produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder. She needed to have an ostomy bag to expel bile.
Multiple tumors showed up in her lungs, making her no longer a candidate for a cadaver liver.
She was getting sicker.
She needed the transplant.
The living donor program
Dockins learned of UPMC”s living liver donor program through patient advocate Tom Stockwell.
UPMC has done about 640 living liver donor transplants on adults and 180 on children.
More than 12,000 people in the U.S. are currently on the United Network for Organ Sharing waiting list for a liver from a deceased donor. Nationally, 1 out of every 5 patients will die on the waiting list, according to UPMC.
For Dockins, the wait was over.
When family friend Josh Menashe, a 45-year-old father of four with type-O blood, heard Dockins needed a liver, he agreed to be the donor.
“I believe I was chosen by God to help Taylor,” said Menashe, who lives in Eastville, Calif. “There is more to her life story, and I wanted to give her the chance to have more to her story. When I first saw her, she was yellow and she didn’t look well. She should have been playing softball and enjoying life, but that was put on hold. When I looked at her parents I could see the desperation in their eyes. It tugged at my heartstrings.”
Divine intervention
Menashe, who reads the Bible daily, recalled a verse that talks about God knowing the trials someone is going through and for that person to stay the course.
“This was the path God had for me,” he said. “I am just a footnote on her journey. The true heroes are the doctors. I was just the vessel.”
During a living-donor transplant, a healthy adult can donate a portion of their liver to someone with end-stage liver disease. Following the surgery, the donor’s liver will regenerate, or grow back, in a few months, Humar said.
“I have the highest level of respect for the doctors and the team at UPMC,” Menashe said. “It is unbelievable that you can do this to save someone’s life. I have had the best support from family and friends and the church.”
Dockins and Menashe rode to the hospital together the day of surgery. They went into the operating room at the same time. Humar performed the surgery on Menashe. Dr. Christopher Hughes, surgical director of liver transplantation at UPMC, said performing Dockins’ surgery was extra challenging because of her medical history. A positive is that she is young, Hughes said.
“Taylor is a special young lady,” Hughes said. “She has been through so much. She is doing great. Josh is an incredible person for doing this. We want people to know they can help save lives through living donor donations. They can help people like Taylor.”
Getting back in the game
Dockins, who started playing fastpitch softball at age 6, plans to help her team as a manager.
“As an athlete, you learn to deal with setbacks both physically and mentally,” Dockins said. “Just as I listen to what my coaches say, I also listened to what the doctors and nurses told me to do. They all have my best interest in mind.”
She recalled being intubated after surgery and wanted to tell her parents she loved them.
“So I made a heart shape with my hands,” said Dockins, who plans to go back to school in January. “It was a magical moment when I heard Josh say he would do this for me. I have a future now. There was a time I didn’t think I was going to have a future.”
Tears of joy
Every transplant case is special, but this one stands out more because Dockins has such courage and fortitude, Humar said, choking up a bit
“Her attitude is to be commended,” he said. “She is always upbeat and she takes each day as it comes.”
Dockins and Humar weren’t the only ones being sentimental.
When Debi Dockins initially heard the word “cancer,” she didn’t know what to think. And then when doctors told her that her daughter needed a liver transplant, she said she was speechless.
“I was like, ‘is this real?’ ” she said through tears. “God blessed us with Josh and the doctors and nurses here at UPMC. I don’t have the words for what Josh gave us. But I do know this – we don’t need any presents this Christmas. We’ve received the best present already. My daughter had setbacks, but she’s never let those setbacks keep her down. She loves life and is I am so excited for her future. Dr. Humar must live in this hospital. He is here all the time. He forms relationships with his patients and their families. I am crying, yes, but these are happy tears.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region's diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of "A Daughter's Promise." She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.
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