{"id":13604,"date":"2017-12-28T07:15:34","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T14:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=13604"},"modified":"2024-12-24T09:19:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T16:19:49","slug":"need-a-live-liver-transplant-former-navy-seal-saves-young-moms-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/need-a-live-liver-transplant-former-navy-seal-saves-young-moms-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The ultimate gift: former Navy SEAL saves young mom’s life"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The former Navy SEAL<\/a> and Hollywood stuntman didn\u2019t hesitate for a moment when he heard that a young mother he didn\u2019t know needed a liver donation or she would die.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff
Jeff Bramstedt donated part of his liver to Melinda Ray and saved her life. Photo by UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019d do it,\u201d Jeff Bramstedt told his wife.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of guy he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hears bullets and he runs into those situations,\u201d his wife, Robin Ihnfeldt, told ABC, which aired a story<\/a> about Bramstedt on World News Tonight<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

After more than a dozen family members and close friends got tested, but were not able to donate parts of their livers, Bramstedt turned out to be a match. And earlier this month, the San Diego father of three gave Melinda Ray the greatest Christmas gift ever: life.<\/p>\n

\"A
Jeff Bramstedt was on the parachute team while he served as a Navy SEAL. Photo courtesy of Jeff Bramstedt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first time the two met during an extensive screening at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital<\/a> about a week before the transplant, Melinda jumped into the burly stranger\u2019s arms as tears gushed from her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just couldn\u2019t let him go. Just being able to feel this guy who would do this for me, I immediately loved this person. It\u2019s like having a family member in a split second that you love completely,\u201d said Melinda, 35, of Centennial.<\/p>\n

The bond is just as powerful for Jeff, 47.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that I have a little sister now,\u201d he told ABC. \u201cWe literally share DNA at this point and she has a major organ out of my body. I feel like I have a blood sister and that\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Your dad is my hero\u2019<\/h3>\n
\"Jeff
Jeff Bramstedt during his service as a Navy SEAL. Photo courtesy of Jeff Bramstedt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The families are now incredibly close too.<\/p>\n

Melinda\u2019s husband, James, has found that he and Jeff have a similar sense of humor and the men love ribbing each other.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s joy and laughter and overwhelming gratitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has given us the gift of life. He has saved my entire world,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

Jeff is humble and self-effacing about donating his liver.<\/p>\n

He did it because he didn\u2019t want a young woman to die. End of story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not OK for someone to die if you don\u2019t step up. That was a no-brainer to me,\u201d Jeff said. \u201cThere are very few things more noble that an average person can do to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turns out that James also had made a life-changing difference for someone who needed his help. James takes little credit, but when he was just 18, his former girlfriend couldn\u2019t care for her infant son and the boy\u2019s biological father had disappeared. James instantly claimed the baby as his own. He met Melinda a short time later when both were 20. She bravely stepped into both a new relationship and motherhood all at once. The couple then fought for over 10 years to formally adopt their son Callum, now 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou fight for each other and you never give up. That\u2019s just the standard. It\u2019s our code,\u201d James said. \u201cWe wanted to ensure that he got what every child deserves: a loving, safe home.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the families got to know each other better, they were surprised to learn that along with a liver, they shared a bond over adoption. Jeff\u2019s parents had adopted him when he was a baby. Among many other gifts, they gave him a love for swimming that later led to the SEALs and his Hollywood stunt gigs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents saved my life by adopting me. I wouldn\u2019t have made it to 30 without them stepping up to the plate. When I learned that James and Melinda had adopted their oldest, it made me feel as though I was paying it forward. My parents mean the world to me. They made me who I am today,\u201d Jeff said.<\/p>\n

\"This
Kieran Ray made a Christmas card for the children of his mom’s liver donor. He drew a picture of a liver with a smiley face and wrote, “Your dad is my hero.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the 10-hour double surgeries at University of Colorado Hospital<\/a> on Dec. 4, Jeff and Melinda recovered together on the transplant floor, then hung out later at the Rays\u2019 home. Jeff and Robin were just cleared to go home to San Diego, where he owns Skydive San Diego<\/a> and she runs an engineering lab.<\/p>\n

The livers \u2013 Jeff\u2019s current one and Melinda\u2019s new one \u2013 will regenerate. Within three months, Jeff should be able to once again jump out of airplanes and do stunts on action movies like some of the favorites he\u2019s appeared in: \u201cMen of Honor,\u201d \u201cTransformers,\u201d \u201cHancock,\u201d \u201cLone Survivor\u201d and \u201cDeepwater Horizon.\u201d Melinda soon should be well enough to relish simple pleasures like walking her children to school.<\/p>\n

The Rays\u2019 three children spent much of 2017 worried about their mom who had once been very active and now was struggling with the symptoms of a rare, terminal illness. This month, the relief was palpable. To them, Jeff is their superhero.<\/p>\n

\"A
Melinda Ray’s 8-year-old daughter made a Christmas card for Jeff Bramstedt’s children. It reads: \u201cYour dad is the hero that will save my mom\u2019s life. Merry Christmas from Mary. P.S. My mom is Melinda.\u201d (Photo courtesy of Jeff Bramstedt.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Callum finally knew his mom was OK and could study for finals. The younger two made Christmas cards for Jeff and Robin\u2019s three children.<\/p>\n

Kieran, 7, drew a picture of an upside-down, bean-shaped liver with a smiley face inside of it and wrote, \u201cYour dad is my hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

His 8-year-old sister wrote, \u201cYour dad is the hero that will save my mom\u2019s life. Merry Christmas from Mary. P.S. My mom is Melinda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Desperately need a live liver transplant\u2019<\/h3>\n

The connection that led to the liver transplant was forged back in college at Colorado School of Mines<\/a>. Jeff\u2019s wife, Robin, had studied chemical engineering at Mines and has stayed close ever since with Melinda\u2019s sister, Michelle Aikman. Robin had never met Melinda. But she and Michelle go on annual trips with women from college. In June, they were in Times Square when Michelle received a call from her sister.<\/p>\n

The news was bad.<\/p>\n

Melinda was getting worse fast. And none of the people who so far had offered to donate livers had qualified.<\/p>\n

Melinda has known since she was about 20 that she had a disease called Polycystic Kidney Disease<\/a>. But her doctors didn\u2019t expect it to cause her any trouble for many decades.<\/p>\n

In rare cases, the cysts grow and cause problems in other organs. Starting in January, cysts — including one as large as a grapefruit — started ballooning inside Melinda\u2019s liver, essentially suffocating her from within.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy lung has collapsed and both are slowly closing up. My heart is literally lying on my liver and being pushed up into my sternum,\u201d she wrote in a public appeal for help earlier this year. \u201cThe worry is how long until they stop working? How long until things start shutting down?\u201d<\/p>\n

While Melinda\u2019s illness was terminal, her liver technically was still functioning, so she couldn\u2019t score high enough on the transplant list to get a liver from a deceased donor.<\/p>\n

In order to survive, she would need a live liver transplant.<\/p>\n

Hope and humanity<\/h3>\n

Robin came home from New York and told her husband about Melinda\u2019s scary prognosis.<\/p>\n

\"This
Melinda Ray with her family. During 2017, her liver enlarged to nearly 10 pounds and was suffocating her from the inside. The liver transplant saved her life so the mother of three could watch her children grow up. (Photo courtesy of Camile Morrison of The Abstract Owl – www.theabstractowl.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instantly, Jeff offered to help.<\/p>\n

Even though Robin is well acquainted with her husband\u2019s courage, she was floored that he also seemed immune to fear. Drawing inspiration from him, she decided to get tested herself. Both she and Jeff had the right blood type to donate to Melinda, so Robin got tested first. She learned that her blood clots too fast, so she was out.<\/p>\n

It was Jeff\u2019s turn. He kept passing screening after screening and turned out to be a match. Robin worried about her husband, but learned to stop making decisions out of fear and has stood by his side throughout the process.<\/p>\n

Finally, Jeff came to Colorado for two days of testing where he met with Dr. Elizabeth Pomfret, UCHealth\u2019s Chief of Transplant Surgery<\/a>. She has performed more than 300 successful surgeries, leading the nation in surgeries for patients who need a live liver transplant.<\/p>\n

Pomfret and her team carefully review the risks with the donors. Removing about half of their liver is a major surgery and it\u2019s agonizing to put donors under the knife when they are not sick. She asked Jeff several times if he was sure he wanted to proceed. She did her first live liver transplant in 1998 and thus has saved the lives of hundreds of recipients. But, she told Jeff that death was a possible risk.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t flinch.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff
Jeff Bramstedt, center, during his service as a Navy SEAL. (Photo courtesy Jeff Bramstedt)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBest odds I\u2019ve been given on anything in a while,\u201d he told Pomfret as a big grin spread over his face. \u201cLet\u2019s do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s used to putting his life in the hands of people he trusts. And he trusted her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a master at what she does. She\u2019ll forever be part of my life.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Besides, he\u2019s pretty comfortable doing things that other people find scary from skydiving to scuba diving to shooting weapons and serving overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at risk as normal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jeff and Pomfret have become friends since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked her as soon as she walked in the room. She knows her stuff and I like humor and she\u2019s very funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pomfret said all organ donors are remarkable and that it\u2019s a privilege to work in a field where she sees true human kindness every day. Altruistic donors, like Jeff, who step up even when they don\u2019t know the recipient, are even more amazing.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff
Jeff Bramstedt right after surgery. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Bramstedt)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe is just a really extraordinary human being,\u201d said Pomfret, who is also a professor of transplant surgery for the University of Colorado School of Medicine. \u201cThe guy had already done his part for society. He had served in the military around the world. He has his own young children and a wife. His decision speaks volumes to his character. These are really honest to God true heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The need for live liver donors is clear. Every year, there are about 14,000 people in the U.S. who need a liver.<\/a> Last year, doctors around the U.S., including Pomfret, performed about 7,800 liver transplants. So, nearly half of those on the transplant list did not receive livers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a greater need than the number of organs available,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAltruistic donation has been going on for years, but it\u2019s not common in liver donation. That\u2019s because the severity of the operation is more significant than for kidney donation, which is also significant,\u201d she said. \u201cWith liver donation, we actually have to split the liver. It\u2019s a substantial operation with substantial risks. It\u2019s less common to see people do that for people they don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pomfret came to Colorado to head UCHealth\u2019s transplant program<\/a> from Massachusetts in 2016. She\u2019s thrilled with her team here and has also found that more people in Colorado and the West are willing to donate organs for people they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff
Jeff Bramstedt wakes up from surgery. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Bramstedt)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about the people here,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s heartwarming, but also extraordinary to see this communal sense of wanting to make a difference and help people. Not that it doesn\u2019t go on elsewhere, but I\u2019ve been doing this a long time and more people here are willing.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Jeff\u2019s decision made a world of difference to Melinda. When she heard that Jeff was a match and was willing to leave his home and business for weeks and undergo a tough surgery, she was stunned and overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s this guy that doesn\u2019t know me and wants to do this thing for me,\u201d Melinda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave me great hope in humanity and also hope that I could be a mom and a wife. That was something that I wasn\u2019t sure was going to happen throughout the year. The fact that someone would put their life on hold for me and stop their life to save mine, it meant everything to me. It was the greatest relief I\u2019d ever felt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018The liver\u2019s in\u2019<\/h3>\n

On the morning of the surgery \u2013 December 4 \u2013 Jeff and Melinda\u2019s families knew they faced a long day, but they gathered in the waiting room to wait for updates.<\/p>\n

In one operating room, Pomfret would remove part of Jeff\u2019s liver. He happened to have an unusually large, healthy liver, so she only needed to remove about 30 percent of it. Typically, a transplant requires about 60 percent of the donor\u2019s liver. While Pomfret took less of Jeff\u2019s liver, she had her work cut out for her cutting through the muscles in his abdomen to get to the liver.<\/p>\n

In an adjacent operating room, someone close to Pomfret was waiting to help.<\/p>\n

Back in high school, Pomfret had met a young man on the school bus. They stayed together through college and medical school and now Pomfret works every day with her husband, Dr. James Pomposelli, Surgical Director of Liver Transplantation at UCHealth.<\/a><\/p>\n

Melinda was petrified as she waited to go under. But Pomposelli reassured her.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Pomfret does a checkup with Jeff Bramstedt. She removed part of his liver so he could donate it to a young mother. Pomfret has done the most live liver transplants in the U.S. Photo by UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was very, very scared and very nervous,\u201d Melinda said. \u201cHe held my hand like my dad would have done.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me, \u2018you\u2019re going to wake up and you\u2019re going to feel so much better.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Robin remembers the moment she heard the first bit of good news.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was 3:15 and we heard they had gotten his liver out. They got more than they needed and were stitching him up. Everything went well. \u201c<\/p>\n

The focus shifted to Melinda.<\/p>\n

Robin expected to have to wait another three hours or so, but the news came sooner.<\/p>\n

James got the call.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff
Jeff, Melinda and her husband, James, snapped this selfie the first time they met in UCHealth’s transplant unit. Photo courtesy of Jeff Bramstedt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe liver\u2019s in. They\u2019re closing the incision. Everything has gone great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone hugged each other and James exhaled, physically releasing some of the strain from the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt something catch and break free,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018The difference between life and death\u2019<\/h3>\n

Today, both Jeff and Melinda are healing well. They\u2019re in pain. Jeff says the hiccups feel like \u201ca shot in the gut,\u201d and Melinda needs to lay down frequently. They trade tips on how to sneeze and cough while pressing a pillow into their bellies to decrease the pain.<\/p>\n

\"Melinda
Melinda with her younger son, Kieran, and Jeff in the background. Photo by UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeff would like to get back to his physical activities, but Pomfret has given him a stern warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo stunts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jeff and Robin were thrilled to get home to his children, Micah, 15, Sam, 13, and Annie, 12. Their mom cared for them during the time away. But it felt like a long time to be apart.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff
Jeff Bramstedt with his children and his wife, Robin Ihnfeldt. Photo courtesy of Jeff Bramstedt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeff is now cooking up ideas to encourage veterans to donate organs. If more of them knew about the need for organ donation, he thinks many would step up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are veterans out there who are healthy, who are strong, who are athletes, who are young, you can make a big difference in someone\u2019s life by just putting your name down and saying you\u2019ll be a donor.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet out there and do it,\u201d Jeff said. \u201cIt could mean the difference between life and death for somebody.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

As for Melinda, she\u2019s been studying nursing. Both she and James were overwhelmed by the kind nurses and other staff members they met during their transplant journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey guided us through this difficult and trying journey with grace, compassion and expertise that always filled us with confidence and assurance,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

Inspired by her caretakers, Melinda is eager to get back to her studies once she recovers. And someday, she\u2019d like to work in the hospital\u2019s transplant unit where she might help others who need a live liver transplant.<\/p>\n

And every year on Dec. 4, she plans to celebrate her \u201cliver-versary\u201d and light a candle to celebrate Jeff\u2019s selfless gift.<\/p>\n

Said Melinda, \u201cI\u2019m going to honor this forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former Navy SEAL and Hollywood stuntman didn\u2019t hesitate for a moment when he heard that a young mother he didn\u2019t know needed a liver donation or she would die. \u201cI\u2019d do it,\u201d Jeff Bramstedt told his wife. That\u2019s the kind of guy he is. \u201cHe hears bullets and he runs into those situations,\u201d his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2123,"featured_media":13661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2773,39,1497],"class_list":["post-13604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovative-care","tag-living-liver-donation","tag-transplant-services","tag-uchealth-university-of-colorado-hospital"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThousands of people a year need a live liver donation - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The young mom was dying and needed a live liver donation. 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