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Injured airman has groundbreaking surgery

Three shots rang out.

Senior Airman Tre Porfirio went down.

To save his life, doctors had to remove his pancreas during one of 11 surgeries to repair the damage caused by an Afghan insurgent.

Without his pancreas, Porfirio would normally face life as a severe diabetic, with daily insulin injections and a higher risk of blindness, kidney failure, amputations and strokes.

But groundbreaking surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., is expected to keep that from happening. Surgeons at Walter Reed, working with a Florida doctor who developed the procedure, took cells from Porfirio’s pancreas and injected them into his liver.

The surgery was the first known successful transplant of insulin-producing cells after severe trauma resulting in the complete loss of the pancreas, according to Walter Reed officials. If all goes as planned, the cells inside Porfirio’s liver will produce insulin that normally would come from his pancreas.

The procedure began the night before Thanksgiving, when doctors at Walter Reed packed Porfirio’s pancreas in ice and shipped it by airplane to Dr. Camillo Ricordi at the University of Miami.

Ricordi’s team spent six hours isolating the “islet cells” that produce insulin, then suspended the cells in a special cold solution and sent them back to Walter Reed. On Thanksgiving Day, Walter Reed doctors performed the transplant.

“Being able to serve a wounded warrior who risked his life to defend us all, I can think of no better way to spend Thanksgiving,” Ricordi said.

Porfirio had been in Afghanistan for about three months when he was shot three times in the back Nov. 21 while inside a combat operations post, said his father, Karl Porfirio.

The 21-year-old communications technician remained conscious until he was being flown back to Bagram Airfield and “remembers holding his guts in his hand,” his father said.

Credit for his son’s survival can be traced all the way back to Afghanistan and the first soldier who picked him up, Karl Porfirio said.

“By all means he should’ve bled to death and he didn’t,” he said. “He’s a lucky man and I’m a lucky dad.”

The surgery is so far viewed as a success.

“The liver is doing the job of the pancreas,” Karl Porfirio said. “They already have evidence that it’s working. They’re hoping he won’t be insulin dependent.”

Tre Porfirio is still recovering at Walter Reed. His father said in late December that Tre had begun eating solid food, and could speak in a whisper and get up for short periods. He made his first trip to the cafeteria on Christmas, and met a special visitor to the hospital — Vice President Joe Biden.

Porfirio also had some visitors of his own, from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where he is assigned to the 88th Communications Squadron — squadron commander Lt. Col. Rick Johns and Porfirio’s best friend, Senior Airman Scott Cross.

“It's absolutely a miracle that he's alive and making this rapid progress,” Johns said. He noted that the nonprofit organization Luke’s Wings has helped provide transportation for Karl Porfirio, as well as Tre’s two brothers and his girlfriend, to visit Walter Reed.

Karl Porfirio said Tre will probably be at Walter Reed for at least 30 more days. Once he is released, he hopes to rejoin his squadron at Wright-Patterson, his father said.

“I’m proud of my son — he’s a good guy, he’s a good airman,” Karl Porfirio said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen down the road, but we’re hopeful.”