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Memphis blues
Photo
Regina Williams, left, of Hubbard holds a photo of her triplet grandchildren, Memphis, Mariyah and Malakai Vance. The baby on the left, Memphis, had a liver transplant last week. His donor and aunt, Jessica Williams, is at right. There will be a spaghetti dinner Saturday at the VFW in Hubbard to benefit Memphis and his family.
When: 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday.
Where: VFW Post 3767, 710 W. Liberty St., Hubbard.
Menu: Spaghetti, meatballs, bread, salad, dessert.
Tickets: $6, available at the door. Takeout orders are available.
Organizers: Regina Williams, Jessica Williams, Bettie Humphreys and Lena Hayeck. Call Regina Williams at 330-307-4848 for more information.
Donations: The VFW, the Lions Club, the Brothers Club of Hubbard, The Masonic Lodge in Cortland, among many friends and family members. The dinner will feature an auction of gift baskets and gift cards, and a 50-50 raffle.
Donations also are being collected at any Huntington Bank branch, or mail checks to Regina Williams, 5859 Fairlawn, Hubbard, OH 44425. Make checks payable to the Memphis Vance Liver Fund.
A Facebook page, Praying for Memphis, updates the baby’s condition.
Source: Regina Williams
By Jeanne Starmack
starmack@vindy.com
HUBBARD
Memphis Vance’s family is scattered these days.
The 6-month-old’s mother, Nicole, is always at his side in his room at Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital.
“I can’t leave him,” she said Thursday.
“It’s hard,” she said, to deal with the constant stress and fear that go along with having a baby who is so sick. “But I have to do it. It’s part of life right now.”
Memphis’ father, Tim, comes to the hospital as work allows and stays at the Ronald McDonald House next door. He was with
Nicole on Thursday, and with him were Mariyah and Malakai, who along with Memphis make up a set of fraternal triplets.
Tim had taken the babies to visit their mother and to relieve Regina Williams, the baby’s grandmother, of caring for them at her Hubbard home while she got ready for a spaghetti dinner. The event will raise money for medical and living expenses for Memphis and his family. The dinner will be from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the VFW in Hubbard.
Regina apologized for the clutter in her kitchen Wednesday afternoon. The room was in a charming disarray that spoke of family members who are willing to let things go a little to bring themselves all back together.
Regina’s husband, Ed, who’d come home about five minutes earlier, smiled. “It’s hard,” he said — the common battle cry of busy families.
On the kitchen table were several baskets, filled with goods that have been donated for an auction at the dinner. There are more than 40 baskets all together, Regina said, and gift cards have been donated as well.
In the living room, 7-year-old Kasen, big brother of the triplets, watched TV while Jessica Williams, Memphis’ 25-year-old aunt, walked slowly through the kitchen. Reflected in her pale face were the remnants of her recent ordeal — she’d donated 30 percent of her liver to Memphis, who has been in the hospital since July 30 with a liver damaged and failing from a rare disease called biliary atresia.
The transplant was Oct. 12, with Jessica at UPMC Montefiore in Pittsburgh and Memphis at Children’s. A surgeon took the left lateral lobe of Jessica’s liver and an important artery through traffic between the hospitals.
Tests the week before had revealed Jessica as a perfect match for Memphis. She even had an extra artery — almost as if it was there for the baby to use, her family marvels.
Jessica, who’d come home Tuesday, went to the living-room couch and nursed her sore torso.
“It definitely hurts afterward, but it’s way worth it,” she said. “Just to see him not be yellow, like he used to be.”
“We can see his eye color now,” she continued — the jaundice that obscured even his irises is gone. “They’re blue.”
“I gotta commend my daughters,” said Ed. “Nicole, for being by his bed all those months. She never left him. And Jessica, for being so brave.”
Memphis was jaundiced because he was born without a bile duct between his liver and small intestine and without a gallbladder. His body was not processing waste. At 13 weeks old, he had an operation in which surgeons fashioned a bile duct out of part of his intestine. But by then, the disease had caused too much damage to his liver.
“Go with your gut instinct,” Nicole said her message is for other parents.
Doctors told her the jaundice wasn’t serious, she said, but she had found information about biliary atresia on the Internet. Her requests for tests were met with advice not to worry, she said. Eventually, she insisted on the test that revealed the condition.
The Vances are living with Ed and Regina right now. Tucked away in a back room at their house are three cribs. One of them has been empty, and that’s hard to see, Regina said.
Memphis is expected to be in the hospital for six more months. He had several surgeries since his transplant and will have more. But the Williamses appreciate the good friends and even strangers, they said, who have helped them while they wait for him to come home to his own bed.