Misty Carter Hutchings, 26, has everything to live for.
But the Springville hairstylist suffers from a rare liver disease, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and desperately needs a liver transplant.She and her husband, Ryan, and other family and friends hope the public will support a plea for funds for an operation.
They also pray a donor liver will become available soon because Hutchings' condition has seriously deteriorated in recent months. The donor must possess the same blood type and the same body size as Hutch-ings, whose illness was diagnosed in 1994.
A total of $180,000 is needed for the transplant and medications for a year. Ryan Hutchings has insurance through his work at Geneva Steel, but the insurance won't pay transplant costs. Of the total amount needed, $90,000 has been raised in the past nine months by Hutchings and her husband, according to Tricia Call, Spring-ville. Call now spearheads fund raising and other efforts for her friend.
Call met Hutchings last July. "There's something very special about her. Once you meet her, you have very powerful feelings that you want her to live," she said.
Hutchings' physician, Dr. Gregory E. Craner, a Provo gastroenterologist, said the liver ailment is an "autoimmune dis-ease that is unrelated to the usual causes of liver (failure) such as viral, drugs, alcohol, etc. It is a progressive disease that results in death or a transplant."
He said, "Misty is on the transplant list and hopefully will be able to survive until a liver is made available. Eighty percent of liver-transplant recipients are able to lead fairly normal lives."
The tragedy, he said, is perhaps half of those who could benefit from a transplant die before a liver becomes available. "There is such a shortage of organs."
The physician said Hutchings was transferred from Utah Valley Regional Medical Center to LDS Hospital to await a donor liver.
The disease that afflicts Hutchings strikes two in about 100,000 people. Two out of three times those afflicted are males in their 40s or 50s.
Call said many fund-raising activities have taken place, and an auction is under way on the Internet. Sage Corp. has donated a Web site address to aid fund-raising efforts. The address is (www.sage.org/misty). Call said people involved in the arts and professional sports have made contributions to aid Hutchings in the form of Western art prints, autographed footballs and other items.
In addition, financial contributions may be sent to the Misty Hutchings Transplant Fund in a trust established at Central Bank, 202 S. Main, Springville, UT 84663, and other branches of the bank in Utah County. Funds also may be sent to the same fund at Zions First National Bank, 111 N. 200 West, Provo, 84601, or to any Zions branch.
Hutchings is registered with the Deseret Foundation at LDS Hospital.