Friends rally after girl's transplants

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CAROL LOLLIS

Cassie Tessier, 17 of Easthampton with her dog Nadia, at home after recieving a double lung transplant in her room that was redone with funds donated by class mates.

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CAROL LOLLIS

Cassie Tessier at home in Easthampton.

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CAROL LOLLIS

Cassie Tessier, 17, relaxes at home in Easthampton with her dog, Nadia, after receiving a double lung transplant two months ago. Her room was redecorated with contributions from her Easthampton High School classmates.

EASTHAMPTON - Cassie Tessier's mother calls it a miracle. And it's hard to argue with her.

Tessier, 17, suffered a collapsed lung several days after Christmas and was rushed from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield to Boston Children's Hospital by ambulance with a doctor and LifeFlight crew. Emergency crews wanted to fly her to Boston but were prevented by an ice storm.

A chaplain had been on hand at Baystate. She was on a ventilator and unconscious for nine days.

She needed new lungs. A rare hereditary condition called primary pulmonary hypertension, the same condition that claimed the life of her father several years ago, had reached its later stages. Her lungs were bleeding. She could hardly breathe.

A month into her hospital stay, doctors thought she was doing better and could go home to await a transplant.

Tessier awoke from sleep early one morning and asked for a glass of water and a Tylenol.

Can't do it, a nurse told her.

A doctor came in several minutes later and explained that they had found a match and would be going into surgery in several hours.

"She was literally at the end stage of her disease," her mother, Brenda Winters, said Tuesday. "All I can say is God had us in the right place at the right time."

When doctors saw her lungs, they realized that Tessier was not doing as well as they thought. Both lungs had dead tissue and were bleeding.

Winters, her husband, who is Tessier's stepfather, and Tessier's sister prayed together during Tessier's double-lung transplant with the family of a girl who was undergoing a heart transplant from the same donor.

The families will never know who the organs came from - only that he or she was between 12 and 17 years of age.

Tessier is home now after spending two months in the hospital. She underwent 15 hours of surgery.

She is highly susceptible to germs and must remain inside for most of the day and take 25 medications a day to inhibit her body from rejecting the lungs. She wears a mask to ward off sickness. Her immune system will never be strong, doctors told her.

"They told me I'm trading one disease for another," she said.

Tessier prefers this one. But she finally got rid of the tube in her chest that used to pump in lifesaving medicine 24 hours a day. If the batteries died on that pump, Tessier had three minutes to get it started up again.

She spends a full day each week in Boston undergoing medical treatment.

Tessier said Tuesday at her home, where visitors are closely monitored for sickness, that she feels like a new person.

"It's very weird," she said. "I'm trying to adjust."

Tessier is essentially homebound until summer, but she is looking forward to swimming, something she has not done in more than eight years because of the tube in her chest.

"It's going to be so nice," she said.

A community rallies

Winters has stopped working entirely to care for her daughter. The treatments are expensive. Tessier's classmates at Easthampton High School have put on several fundraisers to help offset those costs for the family and raised money during her hospital stay to redecorate her room at home.

Tessier said she is grateful for the concern that her classmates and congregation members at Cavalry Baptist Church have shown her family.

"We've had so many people praying and keeping us in their thoughts and even helping us financially," she said.

A fundraising concert featuring four bands will be held Saturday at Easthampton High School on Williston Avenue.

"All of the money is going directly to Cassie's mother," said event organizer Karen Czelusniak.

Fat Soul, who will play that night, is one of Tessier's favorite bands, and she said her friends worked hard to book them. Tessier will only be able to make a brief appearance Saturday - wearing a medical mask - per her doctor's orders.

"I have to keep in mind that if I want to keep these lungs, I have to listen to what they say," she said.

Other bands slated to play Saturday include the Lynyrd Skynyrd Experience, R&B and soul group Jus' Us and the Easthampton Learning Foundation Band.

Tickets at the door are $10 for adults and $5 for students. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. There will be refreshments for sale and a raffle table.

Local businesses and organizations have donated more than $2,000 for the event as well as raffle items.

Matt Pilon can be reached at mpilon@gazettenet.com.