Baldwins receive a Christmas miracle
Published: January 5, 2007
In March 1978, when Travis Baldwin was 8 years old, he was diagnosed with diabetes. Travis, now 36, has lived with the disease 29 years, and it destroyed his pancreas. In addition, his kidneys started failing about 11 years ago. A transplant was the only option left for Travis, but his name was down the list a long way. But would he receive a transplant for kidneys or his pancrease? The list did not include both.
With his kidneys shutting down, Baldwin was scheduled to being kidney dialysis Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006. Beginning the dialysis would help him cope with failing kidneys, but make a transplant situation more difficult, because a body dealing with the dialysis does not have much left over for the challenges of dealing with a newly transplanted organ.
In October, a new donor list specifically for pancrease/kidney transplants was started by St. Louis University Hospital and Baldwin’s was the first name to be put on it. Travis was on the list for a short 10 days before the hospital informed them a donor had been found.
The Baldwins, Travis and his wife, Tricia, were told to begin preparing for a transplant. The doctors told them it may be 18-24 months, maybe months, maybe days, but to begin preparing.
When they eventually received the call donor organs were available, Baldwin would have only a short time to get from El Dorado Springs to St. Louis where the transplant would take place.
Tricia Baldwin is as a paramedic with Cedar County Ambulance District/St. John’s. As a matter of preparation, her coworkers carried extra uniforms with them so they could step in to relieve Tricia at a moment’s notice if she were on-duty when the call was received.
The good news was Tricia was off-duty when the call was received about 8 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 2. The bad news was Missouri was hit with one of the worst snowstorms in recent history Thursday, Nov. 30, unleashing 12 inches to 2 feet of snow across the state. Getting to St. Louis definitely would be a challenge.
“We had everything packed, and we were on the road about 15 minutes after we received the call,” Travis said. “We made a couple of phone calls - one to my mom and one to my brother and his wife who were going to make the trip with us. We had a convoy of three vehicles, and we were ahead of them by several miles.”
“We went through Springfield on I-44 because of road conditions, and made it as far as the first Lebanon exit when traffic came to a complete stop because of the snow and ice,” Travis said.
Tricia called Dennis Winston, EMS manager of Cedar County Ambulance District to enlist his aid to find out about road conditions and if there were any detours they could take.
“I called hoping to find an alternate route to go around traffic,” Tricia said. “Dennis called (St. John’s) dispatch and found out I-44 was closed between Lebanon and Rolla due to road conditions.”
Tricia also called the Missouri State Highway Patrol in hopes of securing an escort through the traffic, to no avail. She spoke with St. John’s dispatch and St. John’s Lifeline helicopter.
The managers of the ambulance and helicopter dispatch centers and Winston sprung into action trying to find the best way to get Travis and Tricia on their way to St. Louis.
St. John’s tried sending an ambulance from LaClede County to pick up the Baldwins from their stranded vehicle on I-44, but the ambulance encountered the same problem - it couldn’t get through the traffic. The Baldwins were on the inside lane of I-44 with the exit in sight, but were blocked in by semi trucks.
Travis spoke with the truck drivers around them, asking if traffic began moving could the truck drivers leave a space open for the Baldwins to get to the exit.
Tricia received a call from the Lifeline helicopter saying they would send a helicopter to the Lebanon airport to pick them up and fly them to St. Louis.
“In the meantime, the truckers all communicated with each other because the next thing I know one of them was knocking on our window saying, ‘Hey, we’re backing up traffic to make you a spot to get through’,” Tricia said. “So they did. They backed up traffic behind us big enough to get our vehicle through, and I got directions from dispatch to the airport and got to the airport.”
“When we got to the airport the fire chief was there from Lebanon with his vehicle, a fire truck and three other men to make sure we were all right,” Travis said. “Then St. John’s ambulance from Lebanon showed up to check on us. The ambulance took us out to where the helicopter was and both my wife and I got into the helicopter and they took us to the hospital in St. Louis.”
Travis’ brother and wife, and his mother and Travis and Tricias’ daughter, Logan, 10, also were stuck in the traffic jam on I-44.
Again, the truckers pulled together to make a way for them to get to the exit. Travis’ family and daughter got to the airport shortly after the Baldwins to see them off.
The weather was not the only obstacle that day. Time also was of the essence. The Baldwins were stranded in Lebanon with about three hours left on the clock.
“They wanted me in St. Louis about 5-1/2 hours after I received the call,” Travis said, “which would be close on a good day.”
Travis’ surgery was scheduled for 5 p.m. He told his daughter prior to leaving Lebanon in the helicopter, he wouldn’t go into surgery until he had the chance to see her.
About 5:30 p.m., the surgeons advised Travis they wanted to reschedule the surgery to 7 a.m. the next morning - they wanted more time to prepare the organs and to prepare Travis to make the transplant as successful as possible. Another piece of good fortune, since Travis’ daughter and remaining family members did not arrive in St. Louis until about 6 p.m.
“The first hour of the journey was the most stressful hour of my life.” Travis said. “Packing up and leaving and not knowing - we weren’t sure it was a 100 percent - if we wouldn’t have to turn around. Sometimes they haven’t had a chance to look at the donor organs, and they call and tell you to turn around, it’s not a go. We had to be prepared for that; luckily everything worked out.”
The Baldwins believe they received a Christmas miracle, not only with the transplant but the fact Travis’ surgery went very well with only minor setbacks and a possibility they’d be home for Christmas. They returned to Cedar County Tuesday, Dec. 19.
Travis said he feels so much better after the surgery. For the first time in 28 years, he no longer has to take insulin and his blood sugar levels are normal. He still monitors his blood sugar four times a day but sees those checks slowing down in the near future.
His body has suffered damage from the diabetes, his eyesight has been affected and he experiences neuropathy (a numbing sensation) in his hand and feet. The transplant will stop his neuropathy from progressing further, but will not repair damage it already has caused.
“It’s been a real blessing,” Travis said. “God had his hand in it and God does answer prayers, because all of our prayers have been answered. Everything was taken care of - with the helicopter ride, us getting there, the family getting there - it was just an act of God everything happened the way it did.”
“I’m so very humbled by the whole situation. I don’t want to take this for granted, and I want to let people know organ donations do save lives. I hope this story will heighten people’s awareness of how important organ donation is,” he said, “And I want to thank everyone for all the prayers on my behalf.”
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