POLAND Family hopes to repay great kindness

The goal is to raise $5,000 so the dream of another ill child will come true.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
POLAND -- Rachel Hawkins and her family want to give someone else the kind of gift they received, when in the midst of fighting her life-threatening liver disease, Make-A-Wish Foundation sent them to Hawaii for a week.
"We swam with dolphins. We went snorkeling. We went to a luau. It was so much fun. It was so beautiful," said Rachel, now 14.
Actually, for the Hawkins family -- Lynda and Kevin, Rachel's parents; and her sisters and brother, Erin, 16, Megan, 12, and Jacob, 6 -- two wishes have come true.
About nine months after their Make-A-Wish trip to the Island of Oahu, Rachel received a life-saving liver transplant at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
"She is doing great," her mother said. At Rachel's latest check-up last Monday, her doctor told her: "See you at camp in August," referring to Camp Chihopi in West Virginia, a special camp for transplant recipients.
Rachel, a freshman at Poland High School, was diagnosed with Budd-Chiari, a rare liver disease, in July 2001.
Rachel's ordeal started with some pain in her left side, which she thought might be a pulled muscle from playing volleyball.
However, the pain persisted and she visited her family physician, Dr. Walter Passarello. He immediately sent her for a CT scan, and 2 1/2 hours after that, she was at Tod Children's Hospital.
The next day, the Hawkinses were told it was a liver problem, and Tod referred Rachel to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland to see a specialist.
"It was a big shock to us when we were told she would need a transplant. We didn't expect that outcome," Lynda said.
How things went
Rachel lived fairly normally with her disease for 17 months, a time Rachel described as "too many needles, too many tests and way too much blood work."
But then, on Dec. 12, 2002, they were told she needed a transplant as soon as possible. Her spleen was the size of a football, distending her stomach, and her ankles were swollen with fluid.
She had been on the transplant list in both Cleveland and Pittsburgh since August 2001, but because she was getting along well, there had been no active search for an organ.
Then it happened. Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh called Dec. 20, 2002, and said a liver was available. The family flew into action.
Rachel got a note at school that said, "Come to the office NOW!!!"
"That's when it all hit me. Me and my friends cried," Rachel said.
Her family picked her up from school and began a wild ride to Pittsburgh.
"I was yelling at my dad because he was driving so fast," Rachel said. "'I won't need a transplant if we get killed,'" she said.
What the rest of the family did not know, Kevin said, is that the liver was meant for someone else. But the original recipient had a fever and couldn't have the operation, so it became Rachel's if she could get there in time.
Surgery
She arrived at the hospital at 3 p.m. By 4:30 p.m. she was being prepared for surgery. The operation lasted from 6:30 p.m. Dec. 20 to 5 a.m. Dec. 21.
Rachel came home from the hospital Jan. 4, 2003.
"That was scary," Lynda said. "Where is the instruction book?"
For Rachel, with 63 staples in her stomach, the worst part of the surgery was recovery.
"Why does getting better have to hurt so much? The pain in my stomach was horrible at first," she said with a rueful smile.
Though Rachel was the patient, her family also was going through a very tough time, especially during the surgery.
"I remember when my sister had to go to the hospital. I was worried," Jacob said.
"I was kind of confused during the whole thing ... the big words and stuff. It sounded so serious. Rachel always had tubes and shots at the hospital," Megan said.
"I was very scared," Erin said.
"The hardest thing for a parent is when you don't have any control over what happens to your children," said Kevin.
"I think it made our family extremely strong. It showed God's grace in the world," Lynda said.
"I think about the donor family a lot, and what they did for us at a time of crisis in their lives," Lynda said.
"We're very lucky because both of our families -- Jack and Peggie Richards and Ed and Paula Hawkins -- also live in Poland."
And the community outpouring of care was amazing. There was always someone to take the kids and always food at the house, Lynda said.
"We met a pretty wonderful family -- the Terralynn Landis family -- who befriended us," Kevin said. Terralynn, now a teenager, had multiple liver transplants as a very young child.
For two months after her surgery, Rachel went to Pittsburgh twice a week for tests. But she has needed checkups only twice in the last three months, and she takes relatively few medications.
Rachel's life has returned pretty much to normal. She cannot participate in contact sports and has not resumed the dancing she did for 10 years before her surgery.
But she has taken up golf, and she is heavily involved in the family's effort to raise $5,000 so they can grant a wish under the Make-A-Wish program like the one they received.
Community effort
People from their church, Evangel Baptist in Boardman, Boardman United Methodist Church, where Lynda teaches in the preschool, Poland schools and the community all helped during Rachel's illness.
Now, the Hawkinses are turning to their church, friends and community again, this time to help them raise $5,000, the average value of a "wish," so they can grant a child's wish.
They sent out a letter May 29 asking for donations, and already the community has responded with $3,000, Lynda said.
Nick Blanch, a teacher at Poland Middle School, by himself collected $1,825 from pupils and staff.
"Maybe we can grant two wishes," Lynda said.
Lynda learned that Make-A-Wish is having financial problems because of the economy and might have to cut back the number of wishes it grants. It weighed heavily on her heart that someone might not get a wish, said Kevin, a prosthetist and practice manager for ABI Orthotic & amp; Prosthetic Labs.
That's when Lynda found out about the annual Walk for Wishes, where Make-A-Wish teams up with Medical Mutual to sponsor a 5-K (about 3.1-mile) walk from 8 to 10 a.m. July 12 at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.
The Walk for Wishes generates money in two ways: Adults pay $25, and children under age 12 pay $5 to walk; and pledges also are accepted.
The Hawkinses are walking and invite others to walk with them in their name, or to make pledges. Checks should be made payable to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Ohio and Kentucky, with a notation that it is for the Hawkins family.
The checks can be sent to Kevin and Lynda Hawkins, 6718 Sturbridge Place, Poland 44514, or to Make-A-Wish Foundation Northeast Ohio, 1422 Euclid Ave., Suite 239, Cleveland, Ohio 44115.
"I think it's something we should do," Rachel said.
alcorn@vindy.com