TRANSPLANT PATIENT BARBARA VIARS DIES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 13, 1992                   TAG: 9202130179
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TRANSPLANT PATIENT BARBARA VIARS DIES
Barbara Viars, a Pulaski County native who four years ago underwent a well-publicized appeal to raise funds for a liver transplant, died Monday. She was 37.
Viars was featured in newspaper stories pointing out the plight of patients in the state's Medicaid program who need liver transplants. Because state Medicaid guidelines do not cover liver transplants, these patients end up having to raise tens of thousands of dollars to be put on a waiting list for an organ.
Slightly more than $10,000 was raised for Viars through various community fund-raisers. She received her liver in June 1988, but only after the Medical College of Virginia waived its minimum $30,000 fee for patients who lacked insurance coverage. Doctors at MCV called the Medicaid transplant policy outdated and unfair.
Viars, whom doctors considered an ideal candidate for a transplant, had been diagnosed with serious liver disease more than three years before she received her transplant.
Viars, who moved from Dublin to Wythe County after her transplant, did well with her new liver until this past Christmas. At that time she apparently developed a viral infection that caused her body to begin rejecting the liver, said Dr. Mitchell Shiffman, medical director of MCV's liver transplant program.
The rejection was successfully treated, Shiffman said, but the infection grew worse because Viars' immune system was weakened. She died from complications of the infection, he said.
"The lesson to be learned from this is how careful transplant patients must be for the rest of their lives," Shiffman said.
Viars, who had four children, attended some community college classes but was never able to work after the transplant, according to Ruby Horton, her mother.
"Barbara was a jolly, happy-go-lucky person," Horton said. "She liked to visit people and do simple things, play games."
Her funeral will be 11 a.m. today at Riverview Church of God in Barren Springs.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB