Stacy Wright/ Dallas Morning News

It will forever be a mystery how 17-year-old Travis Self's liver became infected.

But perhaps what is most important is how Travis survived his illness. It was with liver transplant from a 16-year old girl from East Texas who died in a car accident.

"It was unbelievable," Travis' mother, Vicki McKillip said. "We couldn't believe we had a completely healthy teenager who just within a span of a couple weeks became very ill."

Travis and his twin brother, Quentin, who both attend Creekview High School, had just gotten back from a mission trip in Monterrey, Mexico on July 17. It was their second time to go with a local congregation to help build a church in the city.

"It was fun to be in a different country and participate in their customs and the food is actually pretty good out there," Travis said.

It wasn't until two weeks after Travis' return when he started developing symptoms. He had no appetite, was nauseated and became very tired.

"It progressed from there to him turning an unappealing shade of yellow," Vicki said. Travis' liver enzymes were high, which showed that something was attacking his liver. Travis' doctor suspected he had Hepatitis A, despite the negative test results.

Doctors told Vicki that it was not uncommon for Hepatitis A to come back negative because it takes a while to get into the system.

"At that point, I was not terribly afraid," Vicki said. "I just figured we would get a diagnosis and get him fixed up."

Travis was sent back home in early August to recover. From that point on Travis says he doesn't remember much.

Vicki said he wouldn't eat and he started turning yellow. Two weeks later, one day Travis woke up disoriented and incoherent.

The family took Travis to Trinity Medical Center in Carrollton. Vicki said the doctors were amazed that Travis was still conscious with his liver enzymes so high.
After running lab work, doctors determined Travis was in complete acute liver failure. "I almost fainted," Vicki said. "I had to sit down on the hospital floor. I knew that likely meant either a transplant or death."

Travis had been healthy since the day he was born. Vicki said he and Quentin were slightly premature as twins usually are, but the worse thing the twins had encountered health-wise was having their tonsils taken out.

Travis was transferred via ambulance to Children's Medical Center of Dallas and put in the intensive care unit.

That Monday morning, Vicki said the paperwork began. The doctors began flushing Travis' system to evacuate the toxins that were building up in his brain.

At 5 p.m. Aug. 16, the doctor told the family that Travis would need a liver transplant immediately. The doctors would put Travis on the list and he would be the No. 1 candidate for his blood type in the country to receive a liver.

"He just didn't have a lot of time," Vicki said. Vicki was told by a doctor that livers seem to be more available than other organs and since Travis was only 17 years old, he would be easy to fit for a liver. Travis could receive an older child's liver or an adult liver.

Little did the family know, one of the livers that would become available for Travis would be from a 16-year old girl from Cushing, Texas, about 18 miles northwest of Nacogdoches.

It was a blessing and a nightmare all rolled into one.

Just two days ago, a vibrant teenager and her fiancé were on their way to the store. August 14 made it six months exactly since the couple started dating. Kristen Burnett, who was 16 at the time wanted to marry her fiancé Chris, who was 18 at the time, but her mother wouldn't approve of the marriage at such a young age.

Kristen's mother, Kristena Ross told her that if they were still together by the time she was 18 years old then she would approve of it.

"It was love at first sight," Kristena said. "She said 'momma, he's my soul mate.'"

Kristen compared her relationship with Chris to her mother and stepfather's relationship, who had been on and off together since the age of nine.

"They did everything together," Kristena said. Kristen wanted to be a marine biologist and a veterinarian, while Chris wanted to be an environmental biologist.

"He was going to save everything on land and she was going to save everything in the water," Kristena said.

But the couples' future abruptly ended when the car crashed into a tree, just one mile away from Kristen's house, while on their way to Wal-Mart Kristena said police are still not sure how the accident happened.

Kristen was taken to Nacogdoches Medical Center. Kristena said she was conscious and talking. Kristen's entire right side of her body encountered trauma. She had a fracture to her eye, a broken wrist and several broken fingers that doctors said they were non-life threatening.

The injury that concerned doctors the most was the broken leg. Doctors told Kristena that if the leg wasn't set soon, the bone marrow could form a blood clot and clog her arteries.

Kristen was soon taken to a hospital in Tyler for the surgery. The doctors performed leg surgery and soon after Kristen woke up confused. Doctors had to sedate Kristen because she kept messing with the tubes that connected to her.

"They wanted to do more surgeries on her ankle, but they could never stabilize her," Kristena said. Doctors soon found out there wasn't enough blood or oxygen getting to Kristen's brain.

Kristen progressively got worse, despite doctors attempts. "They had run a test on her and she had minimal amount of brain activity," Kristena said.

The next day, Kristen was brain dead.

"They asked me what I wanted to do and I told them that there was nothing I could do," Kristena said.

Kristena gave the doctors consent to donate her daughter's organs. Kristena said the family had a discussion about it once, but they were talking about what they would do if she died, not Kristen.

"She never said it outright but the way she would comment when I was talking about me - that's just what she wanted to do," Kristena said. "She didn't want anybody to suffer for anything."

All of the family came to say good-bye to Kristen one more time and then the doctors took her off of life support.

Kristen's organs were given to four different people. A woman received her heart.

Kristen's pancreas and one of her kidneys were given to an older man with diabetes. Another man received her other kidney and Travis received Kristen's liver.

"I just hope that everybody who got her organs will live a full life," Kristena said.

Kristena and her family will meet Travis and his family for the first time at the Southwest Transplant Alliance and Dallas Maverick's Organ Donor Game on Tuesday at the American Airlines Center.

Travis received Kristen's liver on Aug. 18. It was one of three livers that became available within the past 24 hours. Doctors told Vicki it was very uncommon for that many livers to become available in such a short amount of time.

"It was weird seeing him all hooked up to those machines, because I never thought it would happen to my brother," Quentin said. "I could really put myself in that bed. I felt sorry for him. It wasn't fair at all."

Friends and family filled the intensive care unit's waiting room at Children's Medical Center of Dallas. At one point, there had been more than 40 people in the waiting room.

"It was a very long day," Vicki said. "It was made more bearable by our friends and family being there."

Doctors updated them every hour and after eight hours Travis was taken out of surgery. Vicki and his father were able to see him.

"He was already not as yellow as he was and he seemed to be resting peacefully," Vicki said. That Saturday morning, Travis woke up briefly and spoke, but it wasn't until Aug. 23 when he woke up again in a better state.

"When I woke up I knew I just had a liver transplant," Travis said. "I just
subconsciously heard some things."

From that point on Travis' health only got better. The next week he was released from the hospital on a tremendous medication schedule, taking medicine several times a day.

After a two month recovery, Travis went back to school the week before Thanksgiving," I was actually looking forward to going back to school," Travis said. He has even taken his experience and used it as a topic to write about in his school newspaper and scholarship essays.

The junior high school student wants to write for a newspaper, magazine or advertising company after college. Then eventually he'd like to become an English teacher.

But for now, Travis is just focusing on getting his life back to normal. He has already gone back to work and continued hanging out with his friends.

Meanwhile doctors still don't know exactly how or what type of virus Travis received. No one else from the church group got sick.

Travis said he doesn't know if he will go on any more mission trips but it's definitely not out of the question.

"I'm still for it," Travis said. "It's for a good cause. I was just an unfortunate. It didn't happen to anyone else in my group."

He said if he does go on a mission trip it will probably be within the United States.

Now Travis' schedule for taking medication is down to only four times a day.

Three different medications keep Travis from rejecting the liver. One medication keeps him from getting viral infections and another keeps him from getting a bacterial infection. Some other medications help replenish was nutrients are depleted from taking the other medication.

Gradually Travis will be taken off several of the medication, except one, which he will have to take for the rest of his life. The pill tricks the body into thinking that the liver is not a foreign object in his body.

Meanwhile, Travis said he is looking forward to going to the Dallas Mavericks game on Tuesday. "I think it will be interesting to meet other kids that went through what I've been through," he said.

Travis' family is especially looking forward to meeting Kristen's family. He said if he has a daughter he might name her after Kristen.

"It's been a lot harder than I thought it would be," Kristena said. She said Kristen was just like her.

She remembers the day Kristen would come to work and shadow her the whole day. She said Kristen worked a lot just like her. "I threw myself into my work," Kristena said. "Kristen was me."