Kristi Flippin / Dallas Morning News

The summer Shannon Sullivan was 16, she slept a lot.

"I always felt worn down," the Longview teenager said as she waited for the start of a Dallas Mavericks game with 45 other organ transplant survivors from across the state.

But oversleeping during the summer is pretty normal for teenagers, so at first her family didn't think there was anything wrong.

Then Shannon stopped eating, and her mother, Christi, took her daughter to the pediatrician.

Her doctor thought she was just anemic and told her to take vitamins.

When that didn't help and Shannon continued to lose weight and look pale, her mother took her back to the doctor and they ran blood tests.

The prognosis: Shannon's kidneys were not working and she would have to have dialysis at home every day for 10 hours.

"It was difficult for her to be a normal high school student, being involved in theater and going to prom while on dialysis, but we made it work," Christi said.

If 10 hours of dialysis weren't bad enough, Shannon was not allowed to eat dairy, chocolate, dark-colored sodas or peanut butter - pretty much all the major food groups for a teenager.By age 18, Shannon needed a new kidney and the family was hopeful that one of her father's kidneys would be a match for her.

Her dad, Brian, had the same blood type as Shannon and was a "five-out-of six-match," but he had hypertension.

"We found out July 9 his kidney couldn't be given to Shannon, but waited until after my birthday party to tell Shannon," Christi said. "When I was blowing out the candles on my birthday cake I wished for a new liver for Shannon."

Shannon's parents broke the news the next afternoon.

Shannon was upset. She had already been on dialysis for 22 months and only on the national organ transplant list for about 8 weeks.

"Not 15 minutes after we told Shannon her dad's kidney wouldn't work, the hospital in Dallas called and said they had found a perfect match," Christi said. "It was the best birthday present I ever got."

Shannon's family raced her to Baylor Hospital in Dallas that night.

Her life-saving kidney was delivered from Kentucky, where a 22-year-old woman had died of an asthma attack.

The kidney was a "six-out-of-six" match with Shannon, so the organ was sent to Texas in hopes of the best possible outcome.

"It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be," Shannon said Tuesday at the Dallas Mavericks game that was designated Organ Donor Awareness Night to celebrate 50 years of organ transplantation. "And now I have three kidneys."

She explained that doctors do not remove the old kidneys.

Shannon sent a letter to the donor's family thanking them, and they wrote back.
"We found out her name is Emily," Shannon said. "It would really be cool to meet her family one day."

Shannon is now a freshman at Kilgore College and plans to pursue a career in the medical field. She works as a cashier at Target and gets excited when she sees a donor sticker on people's driver's licenses.

"I tell them I really appreciate them being a donor because that is what saved my life," she said. Shannon is also glad she doesn't have strict diet restrictions anymore.

"Well, I can't have grapefruit, but I don't like it anyway," she said.

ALL IN THE GAME
To help increase donor awareness, Shannon was one of five East Texas people who joined 45 other Texas organ transplant survivors at the Maverick's game.

Katy Grindle, 6, of Tatum, Alec Thigpen, 7, of Jacksonville, Sean Hanson, 17, and Josh Canal, 25, both of Tyler, also attended the game.

Before the game, organ recipients passed out donor cards and at halftime, all 50 survivors went on the basketball court to present an honorary award to the Mavs President and CEO Terdema Ussery for the organization's support of organ donation.

ESPN commentator Pat Summerall, a liver recipient, also was on the court.

According to the Southwest Transplant Alliance, about 25,000 people receive transplants each year in America, but an average of 17 people die each day on the waiting list.

Tyler teenager Hanson received a new liver in January after a lifetime of battling a liver disease called Biliary Atresia.

"This event is good because it may give other kids a chance to live, if someone here decides to be a donor," he said at the game.

VITAL STATISTICS
There are about 12,000 to 15,000 medically suitable potential organ donors in our country each year compared to the 6,000 people who actually donate, according to the STA.

"If we could increase the number of actual donors to just 10,000, we could transplant half of the list in a year, and hopefully continue that until the list gets down to a more manageable size," said Pam Silvestri with STA. "If we could get all potential donors to actually be donors, we could transplant nearly everyone on the list."

Instead, she said the waiting list continues to grow every day - 300 percent in the last 10 years, compared with 30 percent growth in donations during that same time.

Miss Grindle, who had a liver transplant when she was baby, was excited to meet other kids with transplants at the game.

Her parents said the event was a great way to get the word out about how a donor can save other people's lives. Canal, who is now studying graphic design at Tyler Junior College, was on his deathbed in September 1997 because he had a bad heart.

He had been unconscious for five days when his family got word he would get a new heart.

"Someone else's tragedy turned into a miracle for us," his father, Joe, said.

Ms. Silvestri said people can get a donor sticker on their license, but the final decision is made by the dying person's family.

"Tell your immediate family about your wishes," she said.

A common myth people believe is that if emergency room doctors know a person is an organ donor, they won't work as hard to save their life. The truth is, if a person is sick or injured and admitted to the hospital, the number one priority is to save their life. Organ donation can only be considered if a person dies in a hospital and their family is consulted.

Canal urges others to talk to their family about donating their organs when they die.

"Why not be a donor? You have nothing else to lose," he said. "Just one person can save several people's lives."