Ohio native receives the gift of life twice
By Lindsay Stone
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CINCINNATI, Ohio (WLWT) — Candice Dixon is a 35-year-old Ohio native who recently received the gift of life twice. Once through a life-saving kidney and pancreas transplant, and now, through the birth of her daughter.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world, and I would go through it a million times over again,” Dixon said.
To say the journey to motherhood was difficult for Dixon would be an understatement. The Type-1 diabetic went into kidney failure in 2015 and was placed on the transplant list for a kidney and pancreas.
“And then about six and a half months later is when I got the call,” Dixon said.
When she woke from surgery, Dixon had one question.
“So, in a year, I can have a baby, right?” Dixon asked her doctors.
But it wasn’t an easy process. Dixon had to switch to pregnancy-safe medication.
“And that’s when my pancreas went into failure,” Dixon said.
“As a dual organ transplant to organ transplant, these patients are very high risk,” said Dr. Taranpreet Kaur, a nephrologist at UC Health. “First of all, it’s miracle to have a pregnancy. Then, all the complications of transplant make it makes it even harder to go through their pregnancy and have a successful outcome.”
But despite low odds, Dixon got pregnant.
“After my transplant, I was like, ‘Why did all this happen to me?,” Dixon said. “I just always felt like motherhood was the reason.”
Lydia Ellen Rose arrived just before Thanksgiving last year, perfectly healthy. Dixon and her husband, Eric, call her their miracle.
“I’m so incredibly thankful to my donor,” Dixon said. “I was given life so I could give her life.”
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