By Rachel Phelps

Monday, August 07, 2006

Many organ transplant recipients claim the day of their surgery as a "new birthday" and celebrate accordingly. Longview resident Gary McDonald has a double cause to celebrate Sept. 6: his liver transplant took place on his 57th birthday.

McDonald was diagnosed in 1998 with hepatitis, a liver disease he contracted while serving in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. He was placed on a transplant list four years later, and 2 1/2 years after that, a matching donor was found.

"They told me I'd have to have a transplant, and I thought 'Who gets a transplant?'" McDonald said. "No one I knew had ever had a transplant or been a donor."

A bus driver for Neal McCoy, he continued working until his health deteriorated. The last trip he took as bus driver was to Florida, and he wasn't able to complete the drive home. The band bus driver drove the last 1,000 miles while McDonald laid on a bunk in the back with a high fever.

"I didn't know much, but I just knew this was the last time I'd be going on the road," said McDonald, who had about an eight-day stay in the hospital after that trip.

Although McDonald never drove a bus again, he continued as a staff member for McCoy's to receive health insurance and benefits.

For the next seven months, McDonald remained essentially homebound.

"I didn't do much except get the mail and go the hospital," McDonald recalled. "I couldn't even mow the lawn."

McDonald's wife, Nancy, had endured the most during that time, McDonald said. She was working and trying to take care of him, and both of them were worrying about a transplant coming through.

The eligibility requirements for a transplant are simple: You must be the sickest person on the list, but strong enough to withstand the operation when a matching organ is available. Twice during the 2 1/2 years McDonald was on the waiting list, he received a call that a liver was available and rushed to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, only to get another call on the way there telling them that the organ was no longer available.

"I remember wondering, 'How much sicker can I get?'" McDonald said. "They even asked if I'd be willing to take an infected liver rather than die - and I said I would."

That choice never had to be made. In September 2004, he received the call telling him that a liver was available, and the couple took yet another trip to Baylor.

"I walked into the hospital that night," McDonald said, "but I couldn't carry my bags in. That many months of being sick had really taken its toll."

The surgery took place Sept. 6, McDonald's 57th birthday. Four months into his recovery, he wrote a letter to the donor's family, something he said he found unexpectedly difficult.

"Most people focus on the clinical side of a transplant, but you just don't realize the human side of it until you've gone through it," McDonald said. "You don't realize how much a transplant affects families."

Organ recipients are encouraged to contact their donor families to thank them, but McDonald said many just can't find the words. If a letter is sent, it is not uncommon for the donor family not to respond.

Fourteen months after his letter was sent, McDonald received a long letter from his donor's wife and family, detailing some of his donor's personality and life. The donor's wife gave a moving tribute and urged McDonald to enjoy the life he now has. Though the letter came in March, McDonald still gets misty-eyed when he reads it.

"It's a hard thing to do," he said. "It took me four months to write the letter to them, and it took her over a year to write back."

Later this month, McDonald will get a chance to meet his donor's family at a special softball game for transplant recipients in Dallas. He said he is really looking forward to the chance to say "thank you" in person.

"It's going to be wonderful, powerful, and extremely emotional," he said.

Since his surgery, McDonald has become a spokesman for organ donation. He said many people don't talk about becoming a donor with their families and lose the chance to become a donor when families refuse the hospital's request.

"There are 6,400 people needing transplants in Texas alone, and 91,000 in the United States," McDonald said. "It's serious business, and you can help up to 50 people when you agree to become a donor."

McDonald still is recovering from his surgery, but is active and able to live his life, an option that wasn't available before his transplant.

"I'm not 100 percent yet, but I will be," McDonald said. "I just can't tell you how grateful I am to everyone. I am a blessed person."