Hoping, waiting
Farragut couple faces transplant challenges head-on; knowing someone must die ‘a tough pill to swallow
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Steve Smith with his sons, 20-month-old Remington and 15-year-old Andrew, when they came to visit him recently in Indiana University Hospital, where he currently is hospitalized and on a heart/kidney transplant waiting list. - Photo submitted
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Engaged couple Jen Celest and Steve Smith are on a difficult journey, as Smith currently is on the transplant wait list for both a heart and a kidney. - Photo submitted
Steve Smith and Jen Celeste are on a journey no one would choose.
The engaged Farragut couple with two sons, 15-year-old Andrew and 20-month-old Remington, is facing an uphill battle regarding Smith’s health, which will only be successful in the aftermath of someone else’s death.
“It is a tough pill to swallow, knowing the only way Steve is going to live is by someone else’s misfortune,” Celeste said last week of their desperate situation, in which Smith needs both a donated heart and a kidney to survive.
By the time they met, Smith, now 39, had been so critically ill in 2014 with untreated pneumonia that it resulted in heart failure.
“They considered putting him on the transplant list then, but his ejection fraction (measurement of the percentage of how much blood leaves the heart at each contraction) was high enough that he was able to stay off the list at that time — but knowing it would be an eventuality,” she said.
Normal EF rates are around 60, but Smith’s typically hovered just above 20 percent over the last six years. However, his heart issues affected his kidneys, too, and earlier this year, after both kidneys failed, he started dialysis.
A native of Indianapolis, Smith’s twice yearly heart evaluations and treatments have all taken place at Indiana University Hospital, where just last week he was finally placed on the transplant list following three months of decline.
“In August we had to call an ambulance because Steve couldn’t breathe,” Celeste said. “He was in the hospital for two-and-a-half weeks with a collapsed lung and staph infection. We weren’t sure he was going to make it.
“Then, when he did come home, his quality of life was just awful,” she added. “He couldn’t walk up the stairs without stopping, and I couldn’t leave him alone with the baby for any length of time.”
Smith, already outfitted with a pacemaker, traveled to Indianapolis Monday, Nov. 2, to undergo a treatment for A-Fib.
“We told him goodbye, and we expected to see him again after his treatment, but he called on Nov. 5 to tell me he wasn’t coming home until he got a transplant,” Celeste said.
Smith has undergone some very serious procedures leading up to the transplant, including having six teeth pulled and surgery for a deeply ingrown toenail. He also went into cardiac arrest Monday, Nov. 9, just as the kidney transplant team was beginning to outline the process.
“We were on the phone and I heard everything, from them doing CPR to getting the crash cart,” Celeste said. “They were able to shock his heart and bring him back, and he literally sat up and started talking.
“I was screaming and crying, all while it was going on, and a nurse finally came on the line to tell me he was OK,” she added.
Relieved and thankful at the news, Celeste added, “Steve has been so tough and resilient. We have both struggled emotionally, but I have just been focusing on ‘when’ the transplant happens — not ‘if.’ I know I have to buck up and stay strong, for him and the kids.
“It’s difficult, but I am determined to stay optimistic.”
Celeste and Remington left for Indianapolis last week, and while some temporary housing is being arranged, she expects to stay briefly in a long-term hotel.
“I have to be within four hours of him when he does get the call about a donor,” she said, noting Indianapolis is six hours from Farragut and Knoxville.
Smith alerted Celeste the hospital would be going on COVID-19 lockdown two weeks ago, and she and their sons were able to make the trip to see him before that took place.
Celeste’s mother, Laurie Eldridge of Morristown, is staying with Farragut High School sophomore Andrew in the meantime, as Smith — even after the transplants — must remain in the hospital, or near it, for three months during his recuperation and required rehabilitation.
While the couple owns their own transportation business and have been able to cover their medical bills, a family friend set up a Give In Kind page, “Love for Steve, Jen and Kids,” which allows others to donate time, money or other resources to help the family.
Celeste also has set up a Facebook page, “Our Transplant Journey” to keep friends and family members updated.
“Everyone has been so great — we have been very blessed,” Celeste said.
