Well, I guess this is probably the worst kept secret, but here goes. First of all, I want to thank all of Northfield Park, Keith Gisser, Amy Hollar, Aaron Merrimen and Junior. Saturday at roughly around 11 am, there will be a special little girl named Jessie riding with Aaron in a 2 seater. When I worked with Keith on this, she was at the Cleveland Clinic and when I told her dad, and he in turn told Jessie, I heard a YEAH!in the background. Many people have baseball players, drivers, or politicians as heroes. Well, Jess is my hero. Let me tell you a little about Jess. If you don't believe what I say, ask anyone in the medical profession and they will tell you that her story has been in all the medical journals.When Jessie Bojarski was five years old she got sick and went to the emergency room where doctors discovered that she was suffering from congenital heart failure. Jess needed a heart transplant. She got the first one and the doctors knew that the heart was okay, but didn't know if she would eventually need another. Jess was OK for about two years, though she periodically had to be admitted for administration of calcium supplements and vitamins. While she was at the clinic getting them, her cardiologist saw she was a patient and was going to see her to say hi. When he got there, Jess went into cardiac arrest. He gave chest compressions and shocked Jessies heart back to life. She was put on a machine that an adult could only be on for 72 hours because it destroys the body. The doctor gave the clinic 48 hours to find another heart. They did, and young Jessie had her second heart transplant. With the transplant she had to take anti-rejection medications. The rejection meds caused liver cancer. Surgeons at the clinic went in and removed the cancer so Jess could be okay. They couldn't stop the medications or she would surely die. She kept taking them and last year about October the doctors at the Clinic said that further surgery was too risky they could hit an artery and she would die on the table. There was nothing more they could do. Actually, Jess had had enough as well. She told everyone that she wanted no more surgeries. Well, my best friend (John is his name) told me in the middle of November to come and see Jessie for the last time. It was a Wednesday afternoon. That night Jess called her dad (Mom and Dad being divorced) and told him she didn't want to die and she wanted another heart. John turned white - actually I turned white, too. What do you tell her? Jessies mother, Tami, remembered a doctor that Jess had at the clinic. She was at Childrens Hospital in Philadelphia. Tami took Jess there and they said they thought they could help her. They did all sorts of test and pronounced April 25th as her surgery date. John called to tell me, sad because the surgery would be in Philly and John would NEVER go on a plane. He's afraid of them big time. Well all I did was to put myself in John's shoes and if it was me, I would want a friend to be with me for support. I told John, we are driving up to Philly. He said that he had a pick-up that his wife needed for work and he didn't know if it would make it and I told him we are take my car - it's semi-reliable (I turned the mileage over - lol). Well we went to Philadelphia. We had plans to go to the Phillies game on Sunday to see Jim Thome, but everything depended on her. We got there Thursday night and the doctors explained what was going to go on. Before I go any further, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia is an amazing hospital - they treated me like I was family. I was able to go see Jessie in the I.C.U. Well, Jess had her surgery on the 25th. The nurses had us sit in the waiting area and every hour on the hour they had a representative give us the status of her surgery (they do that for everyone). Jess had an 8 1/2 hour surgery. The doc's said they took 2 tumors out - one the size of a fist, the other a small one. They also said they "think they got everything but if it should come back they will transplant a liver for her". Since then, Jess has returned to Cleveland. Ten minutes into her first day back to school, she got sick and had to go back to Cleveland Clinic. She lost some spinal fluid. They got her stabilized, sent her home and she went to back to Philadelphia again so the doctors could adjust her medication levels. Jess is doing OK now and is looking forward to Saturday. Only one thing and I hope we can do it. Her doctors requested that she not go into the stable area. Jess takes 40 pills a day and her immune system is weak. So Jess can go to the main track if it's possible. People asked me what they can do? I said if they see her tell her hi, J-BO. She likes to be called that. She said there's J-Lo. her name is Jessie = J, Bojarski = Bo.. J-bo. This is a little make-a-wish for her. Actually Make-a-wish granted her two wishes though they usually do one. If anyone watched WKYC news in January, they did a story on Jess - at that time the cancer was eating her calcium and she had two broken arms, both in casts. Again, I want to thank everyone that even comes to Northfield, cause if it werent for the team effort, none of us would be here today......... THANK YOU EVERYONE!
PS - John told me that he was sorry we couldn't go to the game on Sunday and that my vacation was spoiled. I told him that I went there for Jessie and for him - not a vacation. So what happened the guy from Philly pitched a no hitter - lol
LOU A. |
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