Miracle child: ‘I owe my life to an angel from Texas’
Published: July 27, 2006
Watching her daughter, Jessica, dribble a basketball and swing a tennis racket was enough to bring tears to the eyes of Sonia Alagna-Adkins. Jessica wasn’t supposed to be able to do these things, much less survive past the age of 1.
Jessica’s presence at the 2006 U.S. Transplant Games last month in Louisville, Ky., was a journey of faith, said Sonia — faith in God, faith in a Texas family who tragically lost their own child but donated an organ to give her daughter a second lease on life, and faith in Jessica, who beat the odds time and time again.
“Faith. That’s definitely what’s gotten us through everything. Faith,” she said.
Jessica is her miracle child.
Jessica was born on Sept. 11, 1988, with a congenital malformation known as Omphalocele. In other words, she was born with part of her intestine on the outside of her body.
It was a fight from the beginning. She underwent her first surgery when she was seven hours old. By 10 weeks, she had endured three more operations. Doctors didn’t expect her to last the year or ever see the outside of the hospital. She proved them wrong.
Jessica was eventually taken home at four months old, but would spend half of the next five years in the hospital and undergoing more than 40 additional surgeries. She had to be fed through an intravenous tube for 20 hours each day.
Intestinal transplants were still experimental at that time, and it took a leap of faith for Sonia to add her daughter to the transplant list.
When Jessica was five, she was in the hospital receiving continuous blood transfusions. She was dying. Fearing she wouldn’t survive a surgery, the doctors made the tough call to take Jessica off the transplant list.
Shortly after bringing Jessica home to die, a phone call was received from the University of Nebraska — an organ had come in. Sonia had to explain what the doctors said.
Jessica had defied the odds so many times before, why give up now? Sonia called the transplant center four times, and received the same response every time: No.
It was in God’s hands, Sonia said. She immediately dropped to her knees in prayer and recruited friends and family to do the same. Fifteen minutes later, the transplant coordinator called and said, “I don’t know why, but it’s a go.”
The emergency pilots couldn’t be reached. They had turned their pagers off since learning “Operation Jessica” was over. But minutes later, one of the pilots, Rick, said he felt a strong urge to call and check up on the family. The plane was fired up.
On March 25, 1994, Jessica had her transplant, and it was a rousing success.
Jessica is now 17 and a senior at DeWitt High School. She helped Team Michigan to a bronze medal in basketball at the Transplant Games, which took place June 17-21 in Louisville, Ky.
More than 1,500 athletes from across the U.S., and other nations, participated in 12 different sports. The athletes shared at least one thing in common — they have all received a second chance at life thanks to an organ donor.
Jessica said her favorite part of the games was all the new friends she made and seeing donor families.
“We joke around that it is the only place that you can walk around and the main topic is, ‘What did you get? How long ago?’” said Sonia, laughing. “Scars and stories, huh?”
It was so much more than just an athletic event. It was an avenue for saying thanks. Special ceremonies were held honoring the living and deceased donors and donor families.
Jessica now teaches others about the importance of becoming an organ donor. She isn’t shy about sharing her message: “I owe my life to an angel from Texas.”
After graduation from DeWitt High School next year, Jessica said she plans on studying either graphic design or horse training.
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