Teresa McNew Back At Johns Hopkins

By Vicky Taylor

TheGazetteNews.com Staff Writer

Liver transplant patient Teresa McNew returned to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore this week as a result of complications that made it impossible for her to hold down food, according to her mother, Althea Didyk.

The 47-year-old Shippensburg woman and former owner of Siggy's Food and Spirits, a restaurant-bar on Norland Avenue in Chambersburg, came home March 28, more than three months after her transplant surgery early in January. She spent a week in rehabilitation at Chambersburg Hospital before being allowed to go back to her Mainsville home early this month to recuperate.

About a week later, she was back at Chambersburg Hospital after she began to have trouble eating and holding food down, her mother said. The plan at first was to perhaps begin feeding McNew through a feeding tube until she became stronger, but on Tuesday night the decision was made to return the spunky former businesswoman to Johns Hopkins.

There was no word today on her condition. Didyk said she was not sure of the reasons behind McNew's transfer back to Johns Hopkins, except that it was apparently tied to a nutritional issue.

McNew had been battling liver disease for two years when she was approved for an organ transplant last year. She went to the top of the transplant availability list last December after her condition deteriorated. An organ became available Jan. 8 and the transplant operation took place the same day at Johns Hopkins.

The transplant has been deemed a success so far, but McNew has suffered a number of setbacks as a result of blood clots in her lungs and bleeding in her brain. The nutritional issue was the latest problem, but last week when she was taken back to Chambersburg Hospital, she had vowed to be home by Easter for her family's traditional holiday get-together, her mother said.

Cards and letters of encouragement can be sent to McNew at the following address:Teresa McNew; Johns Hopkins Medical Center; 600 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, Md. 21287-5653.

You can contact Vicky Taylor by email: vtaylor@thegazettenews.com or by phone: 264-0383 ext.706.

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This article posted May 3, 2003.