The Clark County Press, Neillsville (Clark Co) WI

September 7, 2011, Page 8

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Young Woman’s death brings life to others

Nanc Pittman’s daughter Kristy Licciardi (above) died a year ago Sept. 8 after suffering an aneurysm.  It was at the hospital Pittman thought her daughter’s organs could help others. Licciardi’s organs gave life to several other individuals.  Her heart is providing research that will help others, as well.  It’s a wonderful thing to be able to do this, Pittman shared.  "Meeting them brings me closer to Kristy." (Contributed photo)

By JoDee Brooke

As Nanc Pittman pages through a memory book she’s put together with pictures of her daughter, Kristy Licciardi, she shares her thoughts while facing the one-year anniversary of her death.

"I remember asking her last year what she wanted for her birthday," shared Pittman of Black River Falls.  "She told me she wanted some of the homemade jam she always enjoyed when she came to our house. That was her last present from me.  I took jam and some homemade bread to her."

It was a year ago Sept. 5 when her daughter, who was living in Stratford with her husband Eric, had come home from work.  "It was a Sunday," Pittman recalled. "She was scrubbing the kitchen floor, and all of a sudden she got a ‘lightening bolt’ pain in her head.  She went to lie down and Eric brought her some ice.  He checked her blood pressure and decided they needed to get to the hospital. They got about four or five miles from home and she asked Eric, ’Why are my feet moving like that?’ Then, she passed out, and she never woke up. She was 36 years old."

Her daughter had suffered an aneurysm. After arriving at the hospital, she was taken to the hospital’s emergency room where doctors performed a CAT scan.

"They found she’d had a massive aneurysm resulting in a loss of brain function, so they moved her to the Hospice unit," Pittman said.  "I was really shaken up. They told us they were going to take her off the breathing machine the next morning. That night, I started thinking about organ donation.  I asked Eric if the two of them had ever talked about being organ donors. They had, so in the morning we talked to the doctors about it.

Licciardi was moved to intensive care.  Doctors arrived Sept. 8 at around 5 p.m. to harvest Licciardi’s liver, pancreas, gallbladder, kidney’s, lungs, heart and eyes. They also took all of her skin and arteries to be used for skin grafting.  "The people who work with this are so respectful of the donor and their families," Pittman said.  "They are wonderful people."

Sine then, through working with UW-Madison procurement Organization, the Pittmans received letters from two of the organ recipients and had the opportunity to meet them both.

They learned Kurt Mackey had been diagnosed with diabetes when he was 14 years old.  He had been dealing with the disease’s complications, including poor circulation and vision, for 27 years.  He had to be on dialysis.

"They got the call from doctors telling him they had a match for a kidney and pancreas on their 14^th wedding anniversary," Pittman shared.  "They wrote in a letter to us it was the greatest gift we could have given them."

It happened to be Kurt and Cindy Mackey’s 14^th wedding anniversary the day Kurt got the call doctors had found a kidney and pancreas match for him, Licciardi’s kidney and pancreas.  "It was the greatest anniversary gift you could have given us," Kurt told Pittman when the two met.  (Contributed photo)

Mackey was from Michigan and had gotten calls from doctors telling him they had a match two times before.  One time, midway through the trip, doctors called him back telling him it was a no-go, forcing the couple to return home.  Another time they’d gotten all the way to Madison, prepped for surgery, only to learn the pancreas wasn’t suitable.  This time, though, the transplant happened and did so successfully.  Mackey is now diabetes-free.

John Scott was the recipient of Licciardi’s liver and gallbladder.  "The doctors said it was a beautiful liver," noted Pittman.  John and his wife Denise have been traveling on their Goldwing motorcycle since the transplant.

John Scott (second from right) received Nanc Pittman’s daughter’s liver and gallbladder.  Pittman (second from left) and her husband Rich (far left) met John and his wife, Denise Scott earlier this year.  (Contributed photo)

The Pittmans have met both Kurt and John.  "I didn’t think it would bother me, but when we met Kurt in Madison, I just started crying.  For me, it brings me closer to Kristy, having met John and Kirk (Kurt)."

The Pittmans were recently invited to Madison where they were honored with a medal recognizing their daughter "who gave the gift of life," it read.  Nanc also had her picture taken with Governor Walker who attended the ceremony honoring organ donor’s families.

Inside the memory book are her daughter’s handprint and footprint taken at the hospital before she died.  There are poems that mimic Pittman’s thoughts and feelings she’s had in the last year.  "We were so much alike," she remembered.  We both loved flowers. We talked on the phone often, one night for six hours.  She only weighed 98 pounds, but she was so strong.  She was healthy, and she was a hard worker."

Pittman has a garden right outside her front door, a garden she created in her daughter’s memory. Several of the garden’s plantings are of those plants both Pittman and her daughter enjoyed growing.  Some of the plants actually came from Kristy’s garden.

She hopes one day she’ll hear from the other recipients of her daughter’s organs.  Licciardi’s heart went for research.  "That’s something else she wanted to do," Pittman said.

"This isn’t about me, though" she said.  "I trust in God and I know it’s in his hands.  I just want people to know organ donation is possible, even though it’s so hard to think about at the time you’re going through everything else.  It has helped me heal.  Meeting these people has helped me.  I miss her so much."