Family welcomes new heart for girl
12-year-old fights back after being near death

BY DAN SHINE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
© The Detroit Free Press
October 25, 2001

The past few months for the McPharlins have been marked by dramatic ups and downs.

This summer, 11-year-old Sarah McPharlin of Grosse Pointe Woods was speeding up and down the soccer field for her team, the Dragons. "Sarah was our independent child," her mother, Dianne McPharlin, said Wednesday.

Three months later, Sarah was in Children's Hospital of Michigan hooked to machines helping her breathe and her heart beat. She was scribbling her goodbyes to her mother and father, Jim.

"I love you. I will always love you. Sing. Dance. Love. Be yourself," she wrote about a week ago to her parents.

"She knew she was slipping away," her mother said.

But just as quickly as her life changed -- in mid-July, when her heart condition was discovered -- it has turned 180 degrees again. Sarah, who celebrated her 12th birthday Oct. 6 in the hospital, is making plans to attend school after a successful heart transplant Tuesday.

She likely will go home in two or three weeks and could start classes at Brownell Middle School in Grosse Pointe Farms in January. Doctors said Sarah will be able to play soccer again.

Sarah, the middle child of three girls, was always healthy, her mother said. But on July 17, Sarah was swimming at Grosse Pointe Woods' municipal park when she started to struggle in the water. Her mother pulled her out, and she was rushed by ambulance to St. John Hospital.

It was discovered that Sarah had a condition that caused her heart to beat at a dangerously low rate. The next day she was transferred to Children's Hospital.

Doctors at Children's implanted a pacemaker in Sarah and she was allowed to go home. But Sarah became sick again and returned to the hospital. As she weakened toward the end of summer, doctors decided she needed something to keep her going until she could get a transplant.

On Aug. 31, she became the first Michigan child to receive a Left Ventricular Assist Device, which helps the heart pump blood to all organs. But, doctors cautioned, it was temporary.

A couple of donor hearts became available early on, but one was too big and another was not very healthy. Doctors passed. Sarah's spirits and health sank.

Sarah and her parents talked about her dying. Just when they were about to give up hope, doctors found a donor heart.

Now the McPharlins plan to promote organ donation. On Wednesday, Sarah asked her mother if she had died, would they have donated her organs?

"I said, 'Yeah,' " McPharlin said. "And Sarah said, 'Thanks.' "