wfn.org | Man Receives Slain Girl's Lungs

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (526
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Note 526 by UMNS on Dec. 29, 1997 at 12:22 Eastern (5493 characters).

Contact: Tim Tanton						714(10-21-71B){526}
	    Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5473	Dec. 23, 1997

NOTE: Photographs are forthcoming. 

Gift of lungs from slain teen gives
United Methodist man new breath of life

by Diane Vanderford*

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (UMNS) -- A United Methodist man living in southern Indiana
breathes more easily because of a gift that he attributes to "some very strong
faith" from another family with ties to the church.
Thomas Hereford IV – "Tommy" to his family -- is recovering from a double lung
transplant performed at Jewish Hospital here Dec. 2.
He received the lungs of 14-year-old Nicole Hadley, one of three students at
Heath High School, near Paducah, Ky., who were killed by a fellow student.
Nicole was the granddaughter of the Rev. Charles Hadley, pastor of Grace and
Hyde Park United Methodist churches in Wichita, Kan., and his wife, Jan.
Nicole and seven other students at Heath were gunned down by 14-year-old
Michael Carneal as they prayed in the school's lobby before classes on Dec. 1.

Hereford, 42, had suffered from a lung disease known as alpha 1-antitrypsin
deficiency (A1AD) related emphysema for about four years when he was put on
the list for a transplant in August.
A1AD emphysema is an infrequently recognized form of lung disease that is
sometimes called "early onset emphysema" because it can appear when a person
is as young as 30 or 40 years old, according to the American Lung Association.
The disease is caused by an inherited lack of a protective protein called
alpha 1-antitrypsin and is usually fatal if its progress is not slowed down or
halted. 
"I couldn't walk half a block without having to stop and rest," Hereford said.
"Coming up the back stairs, I'd come up three or four steps and stop and take
a couple of breaths, and three or four more steps and stop."
He was on supplemental oxygen therapy most of the time, he said.
In mid-July, Hereford and his physician, pulmonologist Dr. Robert Karman,
decided to seek a transplant.
"At that time, I had just finished pulmonary rehabilitation and was as strong
as I was going to be," Hereford said. "From there on out, it was a downhill
thing."
Hereford was told he might have to wait up to six months for a pair of lungs
to become available.
At about 3:30 in the morning on Dec. 2, Hereford got the call that donor
organs were available. He and family members arrived at the hospital at about
5 a.m. and began to prepare for the transplant. He was taken to pre-op at
about 9 a.m., and his family began a 12-and-a-half-hour wait to hear the
outcome of the surgery.
The effects of the operation were immediate.
"There came a moment where I realized I was awake and the first thing was,
'I'm here breathing -- I'm actually breathing!'" Hereford recalled.
Hereford, who comes from a family with a long history of active involvement in
the United Methodist Church, describes himself as still officially a member at
Epworth in Louisville. However, he added, "It's been years since I've been." 
His parents, Thomas III and Carolyn Hereford, belong to Epiphany United
Methodist Church in Louisville. Although the elder Hereford noted that they
haven't been active in the church in some time, they nevertheless feel that
their church background and faith supported them through Tommy's ordeal.
Epiphany's pastor, the Rev. Gary Gibson, was in the waiting room before Tommy
Hereford ever went into surgery, the patient's father said.
"I don't think you could keep your sanity dealing with something like this
without faith," Tommy Hereford told United Methodist News Service in an
interview Dec. 19.
"We never had much doubt that everything was going to be all right," his
father added. He acknowledged that there were fears, but the family's
grounding in the church "stood us in good stead here."
"We grew up in the church, and we love the church.
"The Hereford family are deeply involved in the church, but mainly the
Presbyterian Church," Thomas Hereford continued. "The Methodist connection
comes through my mother. Her father was Dr. John Lowe Fort." 
Fort was pastor of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown
Louisville from 1920 to 1930. Afterward, he became the financial agent of
Union College, according to Forty Years of Activity: A History of Trinity
Methodist Episcopal Church 1900-1940. Later, he served as executive secretary
of the Louisville Council of Churches, a position he held until his death in
1940.
Thomas Hereford's mother, Margarie Hereford, was the first director of
services for the Methodist Hospital in Louisville. His brother John was
national chairman of Methodist Men and assistant to the bishop in Louisiana.
John Hereford also was treasurer of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship
in Nashville in the early 1970s and business manager/treasurer of the former
Methodist Board of Laity.
"My grandmother is ... a regular member out at Epworth, and she's kept me on
the prayer list out there throughout," Tommy Hereford said. "That meant a lot
to me.
"Even the Hadley family -- it's obvious they have an awful lot of faith and
feel very strongly (about) it," he said. "That was an act of courage and
compassion that would not have been possible without some very strong faith." 
# # #
	*Vanderford is editor and publisher of Southwest Newsweek, a community
newspaper in Louisville, Ky., and consulting editor for NetNews, a monthly
newspaper of the Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist Church.

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