Lacy only “got her life back” after a rare — and risky — transplant

A head-on car accident took a young mother away from normal life. A rare transplant was the only option to get his life back.

To Lacy Cornelius BoydMarch 19, 2024 was an exciting day. She and her husband had taken their 6-year-old daughter to the Grand Canyon as part of a family road trip. Boyd, her husband and daughter planned to stop at McDonald’s before heading home to Oklahoma.

Everything was going well — until the car hit a sign. “We were spinning. My husband obviously lost control and collided head-on in another car,” Boyd recalled. Everything else was confusing.

Boyd’s daughter suffered a broken arm. The husband and the other driver were fine. Boyd had broken bones in his neck and ribs, a collapsed lung and serious injuries to the intestines. She underwent six surgeries in five days.

But the damage to the intestinescaused by a seat belt that is too tight, continued to get worseBoyd tells .

“They were trying to save my intestines and every time they came back, they were just dying from lack of blood flow,” says Boyd. “They told me that most people have about 11 meters of small intestine. I I was around 88 centimeters“.

Boyd was released from the hospital after a month. At the time, he was diagnosed with Short Bowel Syndromeand was left with a ileostomy bag attached to the body to collect waste.

His remaining intestines could not process nutrients of food, which required 12 hours of intravenous nutrition daily. The daughter I was afraid of the tubesof the wires and medical machines that now filled the house. Boyd was always weak and dehydrated, and never wanted to leave the house.

“If I was going out to eat somewhere, I was immediately in the bathroom, or I had to go to the bathroom five times in a restaurant, so it was just embarrassing,” Boyd said. “I felt like everyone was enjoying life and I I was just surviving“.

Boyd, who before worked in the health sectormet regularly with doctors to see if his quality of life could be improved. Nobody had answers.

Finally, he followed an unlikely lead. During hospitalization, a surgeon had told Boyd’s sister that she should contact the Cleveland Clinic.

En November 2024, Boyd approached the hospital system on his own initiative. Met with the general surgeon Masato Fujikidirector of the Cleveland Clinic Intestinal Transplant Program, who, after an evaluation, suggested something she I had never heard of it: an intestine transplant.

“I started to cry. I think he thought I was sad, but I was actually happy. Everyone had told me that that was going to be my life“, says Boyd.

A rare and risky transplant

Intestine transplants are a rare proceduretransplant surgeon explained to CBS News Adam Griesemerfrom NYU Langone. Only about 100 are performed in the U.S. each year, compared to the 25,000 kidney transplants done annually.

Intestine transplants have the worst results of any kind of transplantation, says Griesemer, so there is a “high threshold” for doctors to consider them.

Generally, they are only recommended for children born with intestinal defects and people who will become dependent on intravenous nutrition for the rest of their lives, as was the case with Boyd.

Intestinal transplant patients “have many difficulties with rejection and infections,” says Griesemer. The intestines harbor bacteria insideso in cases of organ rejection, the barrier that prevents bacteria from entering the bloodstream collapses.

According to Fujiki, the bounce rates have been improving in the last decade, estimating that they have decreased from 40% two cases to about 8%. Medication can help reduce infections, he said.

Only about 50% of patients survive more than five years after receiving the transplant, Griesemer says. In comparison, kidney transplants have a 98% five-year survival rate.

“Prepared for the worst”

Boyd began the process to be signed up for an intestine transplant in November. Finally, in July 2025, 16 months after the accident by car, Boyd received the transplant na Cleveland Clinic.

The day of the operation was full of emotion. “I was excited. I was nervous. I was sad to leave my daughter and I felt for the donor’s family,” Boyd said. “But in fact, I was prepared for the worst“.

The operation took time about 12 hours. Everything went well. But it was afeathers the first step in a long process: Boyd spent the next three weeks recovering in the hospital, followed by three months of recovery on an outpatient basis, so she could be close to the medical team and be closely monitored.

Boyd had no complications during recoverysays Fujiki. The ostomy bag was removed. He no longer needed intravenous nutrition. The weekend before Thanksgiving, he returned to Oklahoma.

“It was fantastic to be able to come home“, disse Boyd.

Boyd arrived home just in time for beloved holiday traditions. After having missed other memorable momentslike her daughter’s first day of school and Halloween, Boyd felt relieved to be part of the celebrations.

“My daughter is now six, but my husband still carries her to the Christmas tree every morning so she can get her presents. I don’t know how much longer she will let him do that,” Boyd said. “I thought: this year It could be the last time and I will lose. But I didn’t lose“.

Boyd maintains a regimen of anti-rejection medications and will continue to receive follow-up care at the Cleveland Clinic. For the rest, normality reigns, and it appears that the last of the trauma caused by the accident has been repaired, he said.

“It’s nice to take my daughter to school, pick her up, not have to worry about anything, take her and be able to go out to eat. Before I couldn’t drink Coca-Cola. I couldn’t do normal things for, like, a year and a half,” Boyd said. “It’s so much. Everyone is a little more at peace“.