Nearly two months after fainting three times on the Westview High School campus in Avondale, 15-year-old Sarah Scarletto has received a heart transplant.
Sarah received a new heart on July 5 during a 4½-hour surgery at Tucson's University Medical Center.
"The doctors said heart-wise, she's doing beautiful," Sarah's mother, Margaret Nolte, said by phone Tuesday. "It's been a while since they've seen such a beautiful heart."
Sometime around the surgery, Sarah suffered a massive stroke that resulted in the left side of her body being paralyzed. Nolte said it's been a waiting game because it takes three days for the brain swelling to peak before doctors can see what parts were damaged.
"A couple days ago, she was at minus zero on the things that she could feel and do on her left side," Nolte said. "Today [Tuesday], she's actually lifting her left leg and her foot and toes. She can feel now on that side, too, but she's still very, very sick and very paralyzed, but to us it's like monumental."
After fainting on May 10, Sarah was diagnosed at Phoenix Children's Medical Center with restrictive cardiomyopathy, the same condition that killed her birth father.
She suffered a stroke on May 15 that left her speechless and unable to move, but she soon recovered. On May 21, Sarah was rushed to Tucson to have a ventricular assistive device placed in her heart. Sarah underwent another open-heart surgery to reduce fluid levels, and was placed on the Arizona organ transplant list.
The family learned a heart was available for Sarah while gathered in Tucson July 4. The family won't know for a year from whom the heart came. Nolte said she feels for the family of the heart donor.
"If we wanted to write a letter to them, it would get there, but they wouldn't know us and we wouldn't know them unless they want to meet us and we definitely do, and we do as a family as a whole," she said. "We pray for them."
Now it remains a waiting game for Sarah's family. She has to stay at the hospital for another two months before moving to a physical rehabilitation hospital. She's unable to speak right now, and can't eat or drink. She gets nutrition through a feeding tube.
"She knows I'm Mom because she has her other hand and she's pointed to Mom," Nolte said.
Sarah communicates with her hand, making gestures for water and even writing a little.
"Never take anything for granted," Nolte said. "What you hear one day, you won't hear the next."
Brennan Stebbins can be reached by e-mail at bstebbins@westvalleyview.com.
