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Obituary- Whitford, Romera 2

Transplant Needed by Romera DeBacker Whitfield [sic]


Romera DeBacker Whitford is facing certain death within a year unless she receives a heart and lung transplant. But Mrs. Whitford, 42, Baldwin, is optimistic about the success of such an operation and her family is working hard to help her get the needed surgery. Mrs. Whitford, the granddaughter of the late Jud and Margaret DeBacker, Rossville, is the sister of Randy DeBacker, also of Rossville.

In a letter to the “Star,” Cherrie DeBacker, Mrs. Whitford’s sister-in-law, said the family has set up a fund at the Peoples State Bank in Rossville to help pay for the operation.

Mrs. Whitford is high on the list for surgery by Dr. Denton Cooley of Houston, who has pioneered in transplant operations. A plane is being kept on “standby” at Baldwin by a friend of Romera’s husband John, to make the four-hour flight to Texas when the Whitfords are notified that a donor has been found.

In her letter, Mrs. DeBacker said:
“This person is very near and dear to my heart. She has made my life ... a little fuller.

“Romera has Eisinminger’s disease — holes in her heart. When she was 12, she heard doctors whisper to her parents that she would die before she was 13.

“This congenital and progressive heart disease has . . . gotten steadily worse . . . and now Romera has overstressed blood vessels in her lungs so they cannot draw enough oxygen. It’s like hardening of the arteries in her lungs.

“She is going to die unless this new and difficult surgical procedure is done. Dying doesn’t scare her as much as the thought of being bedridden in a few months.

“Last October, Romera chose ‘Hector’ as the name for the oxygen tank that is her constant companion. And, about that time she started having to use a wheelchair . . .

“With a heart and lung transplant, if it is successful, she can have a useful and healthy life. A combined heart/lung transplant is a very new and still ex-perimental procedure. It is being pioneered by Dr. Cooley in Houston.”

Mrs. DeBacker said that while only three of the operations have been performed in Texas, several patients in California have already lived two to three years with the transplants.

The financial appeal is for $10,000 to cover initial costs of the $50,000 operation. Although the Whitfords have insurance, it does not cover the initial cost of experimental surgery.

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