PATIENT STORY :
PATIENT SHARES HIS GRATITUDE FOR NEW HEPATITIS C + LIVER
PATIENT STORIES – LIVER
Stanley Wright is carefully crafting an emotional letter to a grief-stricken family . He yearns to express his boundless gratitude for their ultimate gift : the liver that gave Wright a new lease on life . “ I want the family to know that their loved one lives on ,” he says .
As the one-year anniversary of his liver transplant approaches , the 45-year-old Wright recalls a harrowing , two-year odyssey that could have had a very different ending . His journey began in Tuscaloosa , Ala ., where the health-conscious power lifter and self-described workaholic visited a gastroenterologist , who told Wright that he suffered from celiac and fatty liver diseases . Within a few months , though , it was clear to Wright that this wasn ’ t the whole story . Literally overnight , he went from 280 pounds to 465 pounds . “ My liver had decompensated and filled my body with fluids ,” Wright says . “ My fingers looked like sausage rolls and I could barely get my boots on .”
Wright spent 10 days at his local hospital in April 2019 . “ My skin was leaking like sweat , only it wasn ’ t sweat ,” he says . “ From my toes to my head , a corn syrup-like fluid was leaking .” Wright credits a physician ’ s assistant with connecting the dots and calling a colleague at UAB Medicine . “ It wasn ’ t until I was admitted to the seventh floor of UAB that I first heard the word ‘ cirrhosis ,’” he says . A lifelong teetotaler , Wright was surprised . “ I ’ ve never smoked , I ’ ve never drunk , I ’ ve never done any kind of drugs – just don ’ t have the taste for it ,” he says . “ I ’ ve worked all of my life and never had time to party .”
Although Wright initially wasn ’ t aware that the tests ordered by UAB Medicine physicians were related to liver transplant eligibility , he quickly understood that the stakes were high . “ They told me that there ’ s a good chance you ’ ve got an expiration date on you ,” Wright remembers . “ They were real in telling me that I probably wouldn ’ t live longer than three years without a transplant .” Wright , who had been conducting online research since the beginning of his journey , discovered that people routinely waited on the transplant list for more than three years .
A LIFESAVING DECISION Wright sat with that knowledge as his body struggled . An unexpected , gushing nosebleed at a gas station marked the last time he drove . The
Stanley Wright received a liver transplant at UAB in November 2019 .
accumulation of toxins that his liver was unable to filter led to mental fogginess and the inability to multitask . Sheer exhaustion marked an end to sealing the multibillion-dollar transactions that were the hallmark of Wright ’ s work in the automotive industry . All the while , he continued to undergo medical tests that shuffled his position on the transplant list .
During this ordeal , Wright and his caregiver attended a series of classes at UAB Medicine for transplant candidates . “ UAB did a spectacular job ,” he says . “ There are people I know who were transplanted at different hospitals who weren ’ t as informed as I was .” The powerful information he received – and his rapidly declining health – led Wright to make a lifesaving decision : to accept the liver of a donor who had tested positive for hepatitis C , a viral infection that attacks and inflames the liver .
Early on the morning of Nov . 15 , 2019 , after he ’ d made his funeral arrangements and a day before he was scheduled to go to the hospital to wait for either a liver or death , Wright received the call . “ The UAB transplant coordinator told me they had a high-risk liver and that I
26 UAB CTI Report