Irma Ybarra

Irma Ybarra was suffering from acute liver failure when she was transferred to Methodist Hospital Specialty and Transplant from a hospital in El Paso, Texas. With the help of an organ donor and the hospital’s liver transplant program, she was given a second chance at life.

Ybarra says she regretted waiting so long to see a doctor. Her mother, Irma Sandoval, agrees.

“I stared feeling bad, I want to say it was for about a year,” Ybarra says. “I started breaking out in little hives, swelling in my lips, my belly was feeling bloated, nausea. I just kept ignoring it. And my mom would say sometimes, ‘Just go to the doctor.’ And I’m like, ‘No, it’ll pass.’ I always had an excuse.”

When her daughter began showing signs of jaundice, Sandoval put her foot down.

“She was constantly complaining, ‘Oh, my stomach. I don’t feel so good and I’m so exhausted.’ And I go, ‘What are you exhausted about? I don’t understand,’” Sandoval says. “But then when I saw her eyes started to get yellow, I was like, ‘You need to go to the hospital, your eyes look really yellow.’”

Ybarra and Sandoval went to an emergency room in El Paso, but didn’t stay there very long.

“They told me that my liver enzymes were almost at 2,000,” Ybarra says. “When I was at the hospital over there in El Paso, the one doctor came in and he says, ‘You know what? We really need to get you to San Antonio. Let me call Dr. Foster.’”

Dr. Foster is Preston Foster, MD, surgical director of liver transplant program at Methodist Specialty and Transplant. He quickly discovered that Ybarra’s situation was dire.

“Ms. Ybarra was very ill. Low blood pressures, jaundice,” Foster says. “She was kind of bruised up and her coagulation was not working well. Her kidney function had gone completely out related specifically to the acute liver failure.”

What happened next prompted quick action on the part of colleagues and surgeons.

“She became so ill that her heart stopped,” Foster says. “We were able to revive her. And fortunately, over the next 24 hours, it appeared that not serious damage had been done to the rest of the organs.”

Foster and Omer Junaidi, MD, transplant hepatologist at Methodist Specialty and Transplant, knew she needed a new liver immediately.

“She was very sick,” Junaidi says. “Her risk of dying within the next few days without a liver transplant was extremely high.”

That risk level moved Ybarra to the top of the transplant list. As a result, the liver transplant team was able to give her an extra special birthday gift.

“Donor organs are essentially given out based on how sick you are,” Foster says. “And she fit into the criteria of what they call Status 1, or the top status, because she had acute liver failure. That means her liver was working fine just a few days ago and then it was not working at all.

“She was given top priority within 500 miles of here. And by chance, the donor organ came available and her transplant was performed on her birthday.”

Sandoval says she credits the team at Methodist Specialty and Transplant with saving her daughter’s life.

“She died, was revived and survived on her birthday. Everybody was so nice. It’s the utmost care,” Sandoval says. “If it weren’t for the Methodist Hospital Specialty and Transplant, my daughter wouldn’t be alive today. And of course, the donor. I got to thank the donor also. People should consider registering to become an organ donor because they could save someone’s life just like they saved my daughter’s life.”

Ybarra says she is forever grateful and uses her story to educate others about the importance of seeking care when needed.

“I felt comfortable with everybody there. The nurses there were so awesome. You felt like you were a family with them,” she says. “I tell people I come across: family members, friends, friends of friends, just listen to your body. I just waited and waited until the situation got worse.”