After two years of believing there was little that doctors could do to keep her alive, Eleanor Rutledge now has hope. It arrived purely by chance, after a report she saw on NewsChannel 15 in June.

The Pawleys Island woman will travel to Ohio next month for a battery of tests that will determine whether she is a candidate for a rare intestinal transplant at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the few medical facilities in the world to offer intestinal transplantation, according to the clinic's web site (http://my.clevelandclinic.org/Documents/Transplant/2009_Intestinal.pdf).

Rutledge has suffered intestinal blockage for years, with the first surgery to remove part of her large intestine taking place in 1985. Another blockage and another surgery took place five years later, Rutledge said.

"I kept getting more blockages and I was taken to {Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston} and that's when it was realized I didn't have much left. And everything else started going bad."

More intestinal blockages and more surgeries followed and Rutledge suffered through strokes, seizures and a pacemaker implantation, she said. She weighed 314 lbs. just a couple of years ago; today, she's at less than 150 lbs.

"Slowly, things are shutting down and I was told by three of the doctors that I was terminal."

All of her large intestine is now gone, Rutledge said, and she takes various medications to stay alive. At one point, she asked her doctor about the possibility of an intestinal transplant.

"I was told two years ago that that wasn't a possibility yet, that they were working on it and I just never considered it again until I saw it on your station."

What Rutledge saw on NewsChannel 15 was a report about a fundraiser for Rondale Stanton, a Bennettsville man who is undergoing a small intestinal transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Upon seeing the report, Rutledge suddenly realized that the surgery she had long hoped for might finally be available. "It was like a light went on. It was hope."

She contacted the clinic, gathered the medical records the clinicians requested and started making plans.

"I have already appointments with a couple of doctors and dieticians. I leave on the 7th (of August), all the testing is on the 8th," Rutledge said. "If they need me to stay longer, I'll stay longer. And then they'll decide if they can do the transplant."

Rutledge's plane tickets are purchased. She will leave for Cleveland on her 61st birthday.

Whether she is a candidate for a transplant is only the first of her concerns. Rutledge said if the operation takes place, she will need an extensive fundraising effort to help pay for the surgery and related expenses.

"My husband and I, we're not poor, but we're not rich, and right now my medicines are about $500 a month, with my insurance. So I can only imagine what this is going to be."

If she is not a candidate for transplantation, Rutledge said she has been told by clinic physicians that she could be placed on a drug cocktail regimen that would help her live a longer and more normal life.

Whether or not she receives the surgery, Rutledge said she now feels the promise of a better life, where before, she had none.

"I ask people all the time, I tell strangers, just pray for me."