One boy's bout with illness, so many moved to action

Fund-raising efforts help boy receive life-saving liver transplant

MOSES LAKE — Mother Vicki Polhamus will tell you her one-year-old son Garrett has the biggest pair of blue eyes.

He has those long eye lashes, you know, the kind everyone wishes they had, and a smile that, as his mother describes, will "knock your socks off."

Behind those blue eyes and loving smile is a child who just last month overcame the biggest challenge in his young life.

At Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle he underwent a life-saving liver transplant to replace the failing liver he was born with.

Biliary Atresia occurs in the liver and bile ducts of infants whose bodies are unable to transport bile flow from the liver to the gallbladder, causing damage and eventually failure of the liver.

While most 1-year-olds spend the early months and years of life learning to say their first words such as 'mommy' and 'daddy,' and how to walk, Garrett has been doing those things amidst visits to Children's Hospital in Seattle, transplant surgery and having to take numerous medications.

Despite all that, his mother, who is employed as the director of patient care at Columbia Basin Hospital in Ephrata, says Garrett does not appear to be as afraid as some might expect a 1-year-old boy to be.

On the outside Garrett looks like a normal, healthy boy.

He's learning to wave and say 'mama' and 'dadda,' his mother says.

To look at him one would not know Garrett, the Polhamus's only child, is sick.

It was during Garrett's two-month-old check up that doctors in Moses Lake noticed the boy appeared to have a jaundice coloring to the skin, prompting them to run lab tests.

The results were not good.

Following his two month check up, Garrett and his family saw a surgeon and received an ultrasound of his gallbladder at Samaritan Hospital.

What doctors found was that there were no bile ducts, which drain the bile from the liver, to be found in Garrett's body.

A visit to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane confirmed the diagnosis from Samaritan Hospital.

"What was going on now and what does all this mean,?" Vicki said was her state of mind at the time.

In August 2005 Garrett underwent a procedure to drain the bile from his liver, in hopes he would not have to undergo a liver transplant.

However, after the procedure, Garrett's lab work did not show any changes.

By December, discussions had begun to take place about having a liver transplant, costing between $250,000 and $400,000, which Garrett successfully received in May 2006.

It was 9:40 at night when the Polhamus family received a phone call that a possible donor had been found for Garrett.

Vicki and her family were told they would receive a call 45 minutes later to inform them if the liver would still be available.

"It's like this dumbfoundedness, like, 'Oh my goodness we've been waiting for this call and here it is,' and 45 minutes later they called back and said 'It's a go,'" Vicki said.

Garrett was released from the hospital just nine days after his transplant.

For the time being, Vicki and her son are staying with family in Tacoma.

"People have come out of the woodwork that we don't know to volunteer, offer their support," Vicki said.

And the desire of people to give of their time and resources has continued to spread from sharing Garrett's story, motivating people to do things they themselves never envisioned.

Amy Dana is one such community member.

Dana's 14-month-old daughter Aniston attended the same day care with Garrett in Moses Lake at Big Bend Community College.

"Having a baby the same age I couldn't imagine having to go through that with my own child," Dana said. "I figured I would do anything I could do to help the family."

In six hours at a one-day car wash Dana put on, just over $1,100 was raised for Garrett's liver transplant.

As people drove past Dana, even those who didn't have time for a car wash were putting $50 and even $100 bills in her hand.

Holding a fund-raiser was not something Dana had ever undertaken before.

At CBH in Ephrata, Vicki's supervisor Melinda Farmer has taken on the job of campaign coordinator for fund-raising.

"When Garrett came up ill and needing a liver I just stopped everything and concentrated on this baby," Farmer said.

That's when Farmer got on the Internet to search for a liver transplant donor organization and found the Children's Organ Transplant Association based out of Indiana.

Representatives from COTA flew all the way to Moses Lake to meet with the Polhamus family and other community members about fund-raising.

Through a partnership with COTA a non-profit agency was formed called "Friends of Garrett" through which funds are donated and then passed on to COTA to pay for medical expenses.

Farmer's granddaughter has even gotten involved making bracelets as part of a school community project.

Another lady Farmer recalled, has gone to different church congregations on Sundays to tell Garrett's story.

"We don't stop now just because he has a liver," Farmer said. "Now we're celebrating that he has a liver."