help Amber Carr in quest for lung transplant

[Guest guest]

Family members vow to help Amber Carr in quest for lung transplant

Amber Carr, already 18 years beyond her predicted life expectancy, says

bring on the next challenge. “The doctors said I wouldn’t make it to 5

years old,’’ she says. “Here I am 23 years old and still kicking.’’

Amber

gathers herself and assesses her situation before she adds the punch

line. “Sort of.’’ Sort of for Amber means living with lungs that function

at 20 percent. The 4-foot-8, 85-pound paralegal was born with cystic

fibrosis — yet it didn’t stymie her zest for life until 10 months ago. “I

had never been so short of breath in my life,’’ she says about her Sept.

25 hospitalization. “It was too much to get through a meal. I dropped to

76 pounds.’’ Cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that affects 30,000

Americans, sprouts from a defective gene that causes the body to produce

a thick mucus. It prevents enzymes from absorbing food. TO DONATE

Contributions can be mailed to the Amber Carr Lung Transplant Trust

Account at Lee County Bank, an office of Edison National Bank, at P.O.

Box 2525, Fort Myers, FL 33902.

Amber, who spent the first half of her life in Fort Myers before moving

to Pinellas County, needs lung transplants and needs them now. Her

life-or-death ordeal rallied a scattered family. Amber’s insurance

coverage for lung transplant specifies only immediate family. She has a

pool of three but needs only two donors. Amber initially balked. “I

didn’t want to put three more lives at risk,’’ she says, Father Mike

Carr, mother Melody Meinhardt and half-brother Carr changed her

mind. All, however, face a challenge within a challenge. • Sgt. Mike

Carr, 47, is a 20-year veteran of the Fort Myers Police Department. He

quit smoking Sunday after 31 years and started working out every day. “I

was in the kick-back stage of life. The most exercise I get is walking to

the end of the driveway for the paper. My wife, Debi, even quit smoking

to help me.’’ Does he have a lung good enough to help his daughter? “I

haven’t the faintest idea. But I’m going to work like a dog to clean them

up.’’ • Melody Meinhardt, 46, lives near her daughter and is moving with

her to North Carolina on July 11 for the potential transplant at Duke

University’s medical school. If she is a tissue match, she will be the

first tested. “I never realized how courageous Amber was until the past

six months,’’ she says. “She inspires me to be courageous. She convinced

me we can beat the odds.’’ Meinhardt didn’t hesitate to offer her lung,

yet she hopes the two men match. “I’m not much bigger than Amber,’’ she

says. “The doctors say the bigger the lobes the better, so I hope the

guys both qualify.’’ • Carr, 26, is an MRI technician in the U.S.

Air Force in California. He says twice he was scheduled to go to Iraq and

twice orders changed. “I told Amber I’d be there for her regardless.

She’s got all the strength in the world.’’ Carr says he needs Air Force

evaluation and clearance, but thinks he’ll get it. “Even if you’re the

best candidate in the world, you can’t pull through it without family and

friends’ support,’’ says Amber, 1998 Pinellas Park High senior class

president. Amber and her mom can’t help but weigh the post-transplant

odds: 50-50 for five years; 20-20 for 10 years. “That’s frightening when

somebody puts a cap on your child’s life,’’ Meinhardt says. “It’s

almost

beyond comprehension for me.’’ Amber shrugs it off with her upbeat

attitude. “I’m supposed to organize my 10-year class reunion,’’ she

says.

“You know I’m going to be around for that.’’ — Sam Cook’s column

appears

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Becki

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