Mary Jane Bollinger

It all started with a brief bout of pain in her left side at night. That's what brought an otherwise healthy Mary Jane Bollinger to her doctor's office in the autumn of 1997. Suspecting a kidney stone, her doctor ordered a CT scan. This routine test found something quite unexpected — a large tumor in Mary Jane's liver.

News like this can stun a person, especially when there is so little warning. Mary Jane modestly describes herself as "kind of independent." That trait would prove to be an asset as she carefully considered her next step.

"My parents had been longtime patients at Mayo," explains Mary Jane. "I had always told myself if I ever had anything catastrophic that I'd go to Mayo." A mother of three grown sons, Mary Jane lives alone and is used to traveling solo. She called Mayo Clinic Rochester, scheduled an appointment and drove herself to Minnesota to learn as much as she could about her condition.

Additional tests led Mayo gastroenterologists to diagnose Mary Jane with malignant liver cancer (hepatic carcinoma). Johnson Thistle, M.D., explained that over time, a virus called hepatitis C had permanently damaged her liver.

Mary Jane then met with Mayo liver specialists Drs. Eileen Hay and Ray Kim and Mayo transplant surgeon Ruud Krom, M.D., Ph.D. They explained that because the tumor in her liver was too large to be removed with surgery, a liver transplant was her best shot at survival. Mary Jane processed this startling information by asking a few questions.

"I asked Dr. Krom how many liver transplants Mayo has performed on patients with hepatitis C and hepatic carcinoma," she says. "I wanted to know if the transplant would leave me incapacitated for the rest of my life. The transplant people were very kind and took time to answer my questions."

The transplant team told Mary Jane that she would need to have a treatment called chemo-embolization to shrink the tumor in her liver and prevent it from spreading. If the tumor spread outside of her liver, an organ transplant would no longer be an option.

During chemo-embolization, doctors make an incision in the leg and thread a catheter (narrow tube) up through an artery until it reaches the liver. Once positioned correctly, the catheter can deliver chemotherapy directly to the tumor. The catheter also allows doctors to cut off the tumor's blood supply by inserting foam or another substance into the artery that feeds the tumor.

Mary Jane underwent two rounds of chemo-embolization. Then, in April 1998, she returned to Rochester for more testing and received some good news. The CT scan showed that the tumor appeared to have died. So, Mary Jane was still a transplant candidate, waiting for her turn to receive a donor organ.

In October 1998, Mary Jane learned she was getting close to the top of the transplant list. True to form, she insisted that her sons needn't accompany her to surgery. The day before her surgery, Mary Jane drove herself to Rochester, taking the scenic route along the Mississippi to enjoy the fall colors. "I'd never seen the trees look so beautiful," she recalls.

Four-and-a-half years later, Mary Jane leads an active, and, of course, independent life. She checks in regularly with staff at Mayo's transplant center, some of whom she now considers friends. Like many adults her age, Mary Jane is retired and doing the things she enjoys most. Her routine includes daily exercise at the YMCA, volunteer work, flower gardening, counted cross-stitch, reading, antiquing and listening to good music.

Being a transplant recipient has added a new focus to Mary Jane's volunteer work. She is vice president and volunteer for Organ Transplant Support. Based in Naperville, Ill., this organization is a support group for organ transplant candidates, recipients and their families, as well as living donors and donor families. Boosting organ donor awareness is a campaign that Mary Jane truly feels passionate about.

"Without the gift of a liver from my donor family, I wouldn't be alive," she stresses.