Fox News' Herridge to speak about tx that saved infant son

[Guest guest]

Fox News'

Herridge to speak about transplant that saved infant

son

By Kellie

B. Gormly

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Friday,

April 20, 2007

is acting like many 15-month-old tots: he's trying to

walk, poking his brother and singing " La la la la la! "

Just

by looking at him, no one would guess that he hovered close to death almost a

year ago, says his mother, Fox News reporter Herridge. She donated a portion of her liver to save her baby's

life, after he was born with a fatal liver condition.

" He's

really doing very well, " says Herridge, 42. She will speak at Saturday's Living Donor Appreciation

Dinner, sponsored by the UPMC E. Starzl

Transplantation Institute, which provided 's

10-hour surgery on June 6. The invitation-only event

is at the Westin Convention

Center hotel, Downtown.

" A

year ago, was

dying, " says Herridge, of Washington, D.C. " A

year later, he has a second chance. Sometimes people

say to me how healthy he looks, and how happy he looks; I think that's just a

miracle in itself. "

Herridge -- who comes to Pittsburgh a few

times a year so that can see

his UPMC doctors -- says she hopes her story will be both inspiring and moving

to dinner attendees, who might consider doing what she did to save a child. Very few organs from small children are available for

transplantation, she says, and had waited

for a baby's organ, he probably would have died.

was diagnosed

with biliary atresia, in which bile flow from

the liver to the gallbladder is blocked. He was placed

on a donor's list for a liver, but the first one available went to a sicker

child, and the family's hopes were dashed for a quick replacement.

Yet,

when Herridge understood that she could donate a

portion of her liver, there was no question that she would do it.

" People

really come back to life in a way that's amazing, " says Herridge. She and her husband,

J.D. , have another son: , 2.

" When

you're watching your child getting sicker and sicker every day, it's a big

relief to know that you may be able to help him, " she says.

Donating

part of her liver was painful, says Herridge, the

homeland defense correspondent for Fox News. Doctors

told her that the seven-hour operation -- which included an 11-inch incision --

would feel like " getting hit by a truck, " and it did. But by December, Herridge says,

she started to feel like her old athletic self: she ran on the varsity

cross-country team at Harvard University. Now, Herridge

runs regularly again. " I'm back to

it and feeling pretty good, " she says.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/rss/s_503575.html

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