FRIENDS FOREVER
Young women become friends on the transplant unit

When Ashley Massey lines up, smiling and wearing a bridesmaid dress, next to her friend Jasman Benjamin at Jasman’s upcoming wedding, it will be the culmination of a friendship that started two winters ago at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans on Jefferson Highway. Being there for the bride will come naturally for Ashley. The two former liver transplant patients supported each other throughout their tough hospital stays.

“They’d motivate each other and visit each other in the ICU,” says Tere Crouchet, Clinical Coordinator for Abdominal Transplants at Ochsner. “They were their own support system. It was like they were sisters.”

CLINICAL GIRL TALK
Jasman, a 21-year-old from Baton Rouge, was fighting pneumonia in November 2007 and had such severe breathing problems doctors needed to induce a coma. When she awoke in December in a recovery room, she learned she had a collapsed lung, required physical therapy and needed a transplant due to sudden liver failure. She was shocked.

But she found comfort in the Ochsner staff and her next-door neighbor in the transplant unit, Ashley, a 19-year-old from New Orleans. Nobody knew the realities of the situation better than Ashley, who suffered from recurring autoimmune hepatitis and had undergone three liver transplants since the age of 13 (she was waiting for her fourth when the girls met). Ashley offered encouragement and perspective, and according to Jasman, they “just vibed.”
“The nurses sent Ashley to cheer me up,” says Jasman. “From that point on, she’d come every day. She was part of my family.”

Soon the girls ran the floor, according to doctors and nursing staff. They walked around in pajamas all day, talked to the nurses and played board games like Monopoly. If one friend was sick or couldn’t leave her room, the other came by to hang out. The staff was touched by the girls’ behavior during their difficult recovery, according to Crouchet, and one nurse even brought them tiaras. According to George Loss, Jr., FACS, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Multi-Organ Transplant Unit, the girls were entertaining and would tease him and the other surgeons all the time.

“Ashley was very charming and friendly, but also very independent, and what struck me most about Jasman was her smile,” he says. “Even if she was sad, she’d smile at you.” 

Ashley and Jasman were only together in the hospital for a short time; Jasman got her transplant on Christmas, 2007, and then spent a few weeks recovering, while Ashley received her new liver on May 9, 2008. Both are currently healthy.

TEAM PLAYERS
Ochsner’s transplant center, a Center of Excellence, is successful because it involves all aspects of the hospital, according to Dr. Loss. It’s a team that acts like a hospital-within-a-hospital. For example, dedicated anesthesia teams mean that transplant operations don’t get bumped and the hospital achieves quicker response times, which translates into better results.

Ochsner’s success with transplants is measured and compared to other programs by many criteria. For example, donated livers are on ice for less than five hours before operation about 35 percent of the time in hospitals nationwide. At Ochsner, livers are transplanted within five hours 90 percent of the time.

“When I first met Dr. Loss, I thought he was mean,” says Ashley. “He was on everyone about taking medicine. But he’s strict because he cares. He’s my heart. I love him so much for all the times he saved me.”

The girls’ stays left strong impressions. Jasman says Ochsner was “the best.” They took a liking to the nurses, social workers and surgeons they encountered, and both have plans to pursue related careers. Ashley wants to be a nurse, and Jasman wants to be a social worker, good paths for two amicable, strong-willed survivors.

CLOSE TIES
Jasman (left) and Ashley (right) are looking forward to a long friendship, including sharing special events such as Jasman's wedding. See more photos here.