Son Presents Mom With Half His Liver

By Angie DeVine

Special to The Denver Post

Matthew Speed can't remember what he gave his mother for Christmas last year, but he knows he won't ever forget his gift to her this year.

That's because this Christmas, 19-year old Matthew gave his mom half of his healthy liver as a replacement for her own deteriorating organ.

"He gave me the Garth Brooks box set last year,'' mom Cindy Speed remembered. "This definitely tops it.''

Cindy, 42, was diagnosed three years ago with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a liver disease with an unknown cause that traps bile in the liver and damages liver cells. Medication helped control the disease until October, when her health took a turn for the worse and forced her to look into a liver transplant.

Cindy, a sixth-grade music teacher in Billings, Mont., might not have survived to the wait for a donor liver. But Matthew, a Marine lance corporal, became a candidate to help when doctors determined the two had the same blood type. So, the Speeds traveled to Denver from Billings this week for a holiday transplant at University Hospital, one of 20 institutions in the country that performs living donor transplants.

The operations took place on Tuesday. Cindy was in surgery for seven hours while her liver was removed and the right lobe of Matthew's was put in place.

Matthew was in surgery for almost six hours. Both the donor and recipient pieces should grow into full organs because of the liver's ability to regenerate itself, said Dr. Igal Kam, head of transplant surgery at University, which began performing the surgery two years ago. Kam was Matthew's surgeon. Cindy's surgeon was Dr. Michael Wachs, also of University.

Between 10 and 15 percent of patients waiting for transplants die before organs become available, Kam said. Cindy's "chances of getting a donated liver in time could have been a problem,'' he said. "Living donor transplants have opened a new era in liver transplants because they lower the waiting time and cut the mortality rate of people on the waiting list.''

Beating those odds has left Cindy, and her family back in Billings, feeling thankful this holiday season.

"It's been a topsy-turvy Christmas - all of the other gifts are so insignificant in comparison,'' said Marilou Payton, Cindy's mother and Matthew's grandmother. "We joke, "who would ever think we would be thankful for liver at Christmas?' But we're real grateful. Matthew upstaged all the rest of us this Christmas.''

Cindy's eyes filled with tears as she recovered in a hospital bed next to Matthew's two days after the surgery.

"I'm so thankful Matthew did this. I can't even imagine having to wait,'' she said. "It's kind of mind-boggling that he did this.

It's a pretty big step for somebody who is healthy to take - he has to go through all this recovery now too. I am very proud of him.''

What was mind-boggling to Cindy was common sense to Matthew. He didn't hesitate to volunteer as a living donor when he learned she needed a transplant. Stationed in Egypt with the Marines, he was on a plane back to the states within 24 hours of hearing the news.

"I went from the middle of nowhere outside Alexandria to a Humvee, to a ship, to a military air base and finally to a commercial airport in Cairo as soon as I found out she was sick and needed a donor,'' he said.

The surgery may jeopardize Matthew's military career. He faces a medical reevaluation in three months before the Marines decide whether he can return to duty. But, he said, he was willing to undergo the procedure anyway.

Matthew's dedication to his mother is one of his most endearing character traits, relatives said. "It didn't surprise me a bit,'' Marilou said. "Cindy is a working mom and a single parent and Matthew was always willing to take his brothers to whatever baseball game or basketball game they had to be at. He really did try to help her keep the house running.

"But there's nothing quite like a liver- nothing measures up to that,'' she said. "He's a very special kid.''

Matthew's younger brothers, Michael, 15, Lucas, 13, and Garrick, 11, are spending Christmas in Montana with their grandmother and grandfather, Marilou and Richard Payton. The entire Billings gang plans to come to Denver in January to visit the recovering patients.

Cindy's brother Mark Payton traveled to Denver from Iowa to offer support this past week. He even managed to bring Christmas, in the form of a tiny tree, into Cindy and Matthew's shared hospital room.

Kam expects Matthew to return to normal life in about six weeks while he estimates Cindy's full recovery will take two or three months.

It's a prognosis that means more to Cindy than another other gift this season.

"This Christmas has been pretty different from any other one we've ever had,'' Cindy said. "But if it gets me back home to my boys and back to work then it will be one that was worth being different.''

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