Spokane

Ferris student waits for transplant
Brooke Porter injects self-care into daily routine

Carlos Acevedo
Staff writer

T o look at Brooke Porter, you wouldn't know she was a very sick girl.

The teenager slouches around her house in sweats like any 15-year old. Her cheeks are rosy, and her smile is infectious.

Then you see the IV hooked into her body. A battery-powered pump works quietly to feed her medicine through a port permanently installed in her upper right chest.

She endures the procedure in 45-minute stretches three times a day.

Porter, a freshman at Ferris High School, has cystic fibrosis, an incurable hereditary illness. Cystic fibrosis causes the body to produce a mucous that clogs the lungs and pancreas to the point where the organs don't work.

The heart and digestive tract are also affected.

In Porter's case, her liver has been hit hard, and she needs a transplant to live.

She's been waiting three years. The family says that although Porter is on the top of the list, not enough people register to donate organs and there is a shortage. To complicate matters, Porter needs a liver that is compatible with her size and blood type.

Over the past couple of years, Porter's school chums at Moran Prairie Elementary and Chase Middle School, and the South Hill Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where the family attends worship services, have raised thousands of dollars to offset the incredible cost of the operation.

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