A new heart for Brian Dougherty
Brian Dougherty was born with half a working heart.
When his mother, Susan Boncal, was 22 weeks pregnant, she learned he would be born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The left side of his heart would be underdeveloped. The right side of his heart was taxed with pumping blood throughout his entire newborn body.
The 15-year-old from Nanticoke has dealt with a host of problems, more than many teenagers.
Through it all, he’s been a great kid, said his teacher at Greater Nanticoke Area, Jean Marie Hockenbury. She has taught Brian as a homebound student for the past six years.
“He’s been an amazing kid,” she said. “He’s always ready to work.”
Brian had his first surgery when he was six days old. Before he turned two, he had been through three open-heart surgeries.
He developed a digestive problem called Protein Losing Enteropathy. The maladies piled up: malnutrition, stunted growth, cataracts and osteoporosis. Brian started taking medicine regularly to cope with a list of health issues, and for about seven years, his health was stable.
Around age 10, problems began coming back. Fighting the PLE was a constant shifting battle. When he got sick, the problem got worse. A stomach bug could be life-threatening. His family and physicians did their best to make him as healthy as possible.
In June of 2014, Susan asked the doctors treating Brian about a heart transplant. His health had been too poor before for a transplant. In the spring of that year, the levels in his blood of albumin, a protein made by the liver, were dropping. Before his health deteriorated, doctors evaluated Brian for a heart transplant. That fall, they went to Pittsburgh for a transplant evaluation. He was on the list.
He was at a camp for children with heart problems when he had a severe heart failure. A doctor admitted him to the hospital and he started taking intravenous drugs. On June 24, 2015, he was bumped to the top category of transplant candidates. Two months later, the call came. A heart was ready.
Brian prepped for surgery. On Aug. 20, he went into the operating room at 4:20 a.m.
All he and his mother know about the donor organ is that it came from a young man. Brian has adapted well to his new heart.
For four days after the surgery, Brian was intubated and paralyzed. He is walking now.
Recovery has brought its own frustrations and victories.
“Will he ever catch a break??” Boncal wrote on Brian’s GoFundMe Web page after describing trouble with his kidneys, two days after Brian could have been discharged from the hospital.
And then, in the same post, came a moment of joy:
