A Call In The Middle Of The Night: 90 Minutes To Save Her Life

When Massapequa resident Dana Sepulveda heard the phone ring at about 5 in the morning on June 26, her first thought was that someone died. Little did she know it was actually the call that would save her life.

The 36-year-old mother of two had been waiting for a call for a liver and kidney transplant after she was diagnosed with polycystic kidney and liver disease a few years ago.

"I went through life fine and then after I became pregnant with my first daughter I noticed a little distension in the my stomach which is strange because I'm in good shape," Sepulveda told Patch.

She went to a local doctor in Massapequa who told her it was probably just from the baby and that everything was fine.

However, after becoming pregnant with her second child last year the doctors noticed her liver and kidneys were enlarged during a sonogram. She was told to get it checked out after the baby was born.

She then went to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and was told she would have to get a transplant. So she got on the list and started the process to receive a new liver and kidney last October.

Fast forward to the morning of the phone call of June 26. The doctors called Sepulveda to tell her there was a donor for her and she could be receiving a new liver and kidney after a 49-year-old man died from a stroke.

There was one problem -- she needed to get from her home in Massapequa to the hospital almost 40 miles away in an hour and a half.

Sepulveda's first plan was to just drive herself and have her husband and children meet her at the hospital.

"I'm getting in the car and I didn't even know where I was going," she recalls. "I was so rattled and I was like 'I can't drive like this.'"

After that, her next thought was to go to the cops so that they could maybe call her an ambulance or drive her there.

So Sepulveda, whose husband is an NYPD officer, went to the police station on Merrick Road in Seaford in her pajamas to ask for help. "I walked in there frantic, in my pajamas," she said.

Police were confused by a healthy looking Sepulveda saying she needed a transplant.

"The problem with this disease is that I look healthy," she said. "But my organs are actually 15 pounds."

After verifying with her doctors that she did indeed need a transplant, police stepped in to help.

The police figured that even in a police car with the lights on, they wouldn't make it on time so they tried a different method – by helicopter.

"I didn't expect a helicopter," she said. "I always expect the police to help, that's where we always go when we're in trouble. In a flight or fight position, I thought who can help? If they said no then that would be my destiny and I would have to drive and make a miracle happen but luckily that wasn't the case."

Luckily, she ended up in the city to meet the NYPD in 35 minutes, arriving at Mount Sinai before her organs even did.

On the flight, Sepulveda felt a combination or shock, fear and worry.

"It was a life or death situation. I was thinking what would happen to my husband and my kids," she said. "I run this whole operation and it's not easy. But I tried not to think negatively and tried to think 'I'm going to be okay.'"

The help from police wasn't the only stroke of luck Sepulveda got that night. Her donor was a large man, about 6-foot-3 with a liver weighing in at about 5 pounds, she said. While the typical liver for an average sized woman is about 3 to 4 pounds, she was able to take her donor's slightly bigger organ since it was still less than her 15-pound liver.

This also allowed her to bypass several other people on the list who could not take a liver that size.

"It was a miracle, it was meant to be," she said.

The surgery went well, Sepulveda didn't even need a blood transfusion. However, about a week later she found out she had internal bleeding, forcing her to stay in the hospital for about a month.

Now, she is back in her home, recovering. She still needs to go to the hospital twice a week and is on medication but she says she is doing much better.

"I'm taking it day by day," she said.

Sepulveda's main concern now is going back to work as a realtor in order to start making money again to pay the bills.

In order to help her spend more time in recovery, her best friend, Elisa Francesca, started a GoFundMe page to help raise money for Sepulveda and her family.

"I truly admire Dana. She has been so consumed with the 'what if’s' of this situation but she keeps her head up for her family," Francesca wrote on the page. "In her house its business as usual. Dana gets up and to go to work, cooks, cleans and still tries to keep in shape in preparation for her double transplants. You would never know all she is going through by looking at her."

The page was created in January with the goal to reach a total of $50,000. As of Thursday, the page has reached a total of $19,175.

"She is not one to ask for help so I am taking it upon myself to make her life easier and her mind more at ease, by her knowing her family will be ok and in good hands for the time she will need to recover," Francesca writes.

Sepuvelda says it felt "amazing" to know people loved and care about her.

"I've always try to put other people first and show people how much I appreciate them and it felt amazing to see it come full circle and come back to me," she said. "I'm more than grateful to everyone who has been supportive. Even it was a dollar it made a difference to us."

Despite everything, she still remains positive, something she says got her through this whole process.

"Everything happens for a reason and you have to have faith that there's a bigger purpose," Sepuvelda said. "It's going to teach me a lesson I just don't know what it is yet."

For someone going through someone similar, her advice is to focus on staying positive.

"If you focus on being worried and scared it's just going to make whatever time you have until it happens miserable," she said. "If this was your last day on Earth you would want to be happy so that should be your focus to make everyday happy and positive."

Last week, four Nassau County police officers were honored by the county legislature for their help in transporting Sepuvelda to the hospital.

"I was crying [during the ceremony]," she said. "I wanted to be there because I wanted to see them be rewarded for not only the caring and compassionate thing that they did but for the courageous thing they did -- stepping up and making sure I got there. It was very heartwarming to thank them and meet their families."