Woman With Digestive Transplant Eats

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Woman With Digestive Transplant Eats

By Associated Press November 3, 2006, 7:01 PM EST

ATHENS,

Ala. -- An Athens woman who underwent a rare transplant of her

digestive system at a Miami hospital last month said she had her first regular meal

Friday since the surgery and walked some laps around the ward. Sara Ultz, 28, was

studying at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a master's degree in business when she became ill in

August 2005 with a stomach ache. It let to the 13-hour surgery in which Ultz received a stomach,

pancreas, spleen, liver, and small and large intestines.

I was only four classes

from being done, " Ultz said in a telephone

interview Friday from her hospital room. She expects to be in Miami a few more

months while recovering. Ultz first received treatment last year at Brookwood Hospital in Birmingham. Doctors

found a bowel obstruction and removed part of her small intestine. But she

required more severe surgery and was admitted to the Memorial Hospital for what is

called a multivisceral transplant. University of Miami surgery

professor Dr. s Tzakis, director of the

hospital's liver and gastrointestinal transplant program, confirmed Ultz received the transplanted organs.

Tzakis, a UM/ surgeon, commented to The

Associated Press in a telephone interview after Ultz's

surgery was first reported Friday by The News Courier in Athens. Her parents, Gail and Ron Ultz,

are in Miami with their

daughter. Anne Paschke, a spokeswoman

for the Virginia-based Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, said 45 multivisceral transplants were performed nationwide in 2005

and 36 have been completed from January through July this year.

Tzakis said about 300 of these transplants have been

done worldwide, about half of them at the Miami hospital.

In 2005, the hospital performed 18 transplants and so far this year has

performed 28. Tzakis

said the first three months of recovery are the toughest for patients. He said

about 65 percent of the hospital's patients getting the transplants are children.

Sara Ultz said

her father brought her computer so she's keeping in touch with friends and

family by e-mail and cell phone.

" My goal is to move back to Birmingham. That's my

city. I've lived there since I was 18, " said Ultz,

an East Limestone High

School graduate who earned a degree in biology

in 2000. During her daughter's medical

crisis, Gail Ultz learned she had one of her own -- a

failing kidney. She was admitted to the same Miami hospital

caring for her daughter and now requires kidney dialysis three times a week and

will probably need a kidney transplant.

Ultz's

mother works for the city of Athens,

where co-workers plan a benefit chicken stew and bake sale Nov. 13 to help the

family pay expenses. Gail

Ultz said she has always carried an organ donor card

and thought she would give up an organ if necessary to one of her two daughters. Sara Ultz will have

to remain on expensive anti-rejection drugs throughout her life.

" That is something I'll also have to face if I have a transplant, " Gail

Ultz said.

She's no stranger to adversity. Nearly three years ago, her brother, Athens

Police Sgt. Larry , was gunned down with fellow officer Tony Mims in an

ambush slaying.

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