The Rocket

Issue date: 10/27/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Submitted Photo Sophomore international student Shiron Cooper in the hospital where she is waiting for a liver transplant. She was diagnosed with a rare disease in 2002.

Students are seeking donations for a $300,000 liver transplant necessary for the survival of an international SRU student.

Shiron Cooper, 19, a sophomore management major from Trinidad, is currently at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) where she is dying from primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease that causes the liver to be inflamed and scarred to the point of failure.

She has not received a liver donation because she has not been put on the waiting list due to lack of U.S. citizenship and financial aid. Returning home to Trinidad is not feasible because she currently cannot travel, and her country lacks the medical capability to perform a liver transplant.

Cooper's brother, Shayne, and roommate Nyssa Mendoza, also SRU students, have created a Facebook group called Save Our Shiron (S.O.S.) to bring awareness to peers. There are currently more than 500 members who are interested in helping collect the money to fund the surgery.

Shiron has been in the hospital for the last six weeks. She was taken to UPMC days after being released from Butler Memorial Hospital.

"When her body started falling apart, I took that really hard," Shayne said.

He said he was thinking about quitting track, but didn't because his sister encouraged him not to quit.

"I was ready to give up my dreams," he said. "Life is hectic now and I want to do everything I can to help her out."

Mendoza, a sophomore psychology major who came to SRU with Shiron, said her dorm room in Kraus Hall is too quiet without Shiron to complain to about the food and weather.

"There's no one there to talk to anymore," she said. "It's kind of eerie. Her stuff is still there and it looks like she is on a little vacation, but I know she's not."

Shiron was diagnosed with this rare disease in 2002. Doctors gave her a few more months to live.

"When she made it through the first year, it increased our faith," Shayne said. "We've never accepted that she would die. We've stayed hopeful."

Shayne said its been hard on the family because his parents are taking time off work to be with her, keeping them from earning enough money for the operation.

To make donations toward Shiron's operation, contact Shayne at sxc6928@sru.edu or Nyssa at nxm3227@sru.edu.

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