Through a documentary and nonprofit organization,
liver transplant survivor hopes to pay it forward.
L
ike many people who are raised in an Italian family,
Anthony Villiotti of Scott Township grew up
surrounded by food. Hearty pasta dishes and loaves of
bread were staples at his dinner table, and Villiotti and
his family enthusiastically devoured every bite. Despite the heavy
caloric intake, Villiotti was able to keep his weight in check by
maintaining an athletic lifestyle; he graduated from Penn State
in 1968 weighing around 200 pounds, which he carried easily on
his 5'11" frame.
After college, Villiotti found a job in accounting and finance,
where he spent long hours behind a desk, indulging in fast,
unhealthy foods. Shortly before he was married in 1978, he
learned he had high blood pressure. By 1988, as a father of two
and weighing more than 290 pounds, he would be diagnosed
with Type 2 diabetes. On medication to control his blood
sugar, he vowed to lose weight and eat better. He lost around 30
pounds and, as he states, “I felt good and life moved on.”
A few decades later, at age 57, he retired. With more time to
devote to health and fitness, Villiotti began walking, and felt like
he was in the best shape of his adult life. Then, unexpectedly,
everything changed.
While he was out walking one day in 2004, his heart began
to race and he broke out in a cold sweat. Anxious, he called his
doctor and soon found himself being rushed to the hospital in
the back of an ambulance. At the hospital, he was told he had
atrial fibrillation, which causes an irregular heartbeat. He had
also suffered a mild heart attack. A cardiologist performed a
catheterization and, thankfully, no open-heart surgery would be
needed. He was given a prescription for a beta blocker to lower
his blood pressure and sent home the next day.
Then, at a checkup in 2005, Villiotti’s primary care physician
told him his liver enzymes were elevated and that he had a fatty
liver, or, more specifically, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
(NAFLD)—a disease that affects an estimated 100 million
Americans. His doctor told him to lose weight, and since his
doctor didn’t make a big deal out of the diagnosis, neither did
Villiotti. For the next few years, his weight ping-ponged up and
down, and the fatty liver silently continued to worsen. Then,
in 2014, following routine bloodwork, his doctor called with
troubling news: he was concerned that Villiotti might have
cirrhosis and wanted him to get an MRI.
Villiotti soon learned he not only had cirrhosis but also
Non‑Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, or NASH, the most severe form
of NAFLD. It’s estimated that NASH affects approximately 25
million people—nearly a quarter of those who have NAFLD—
and most people don’t know they have it.
“I was diagnosed with NASH and liver cirrhosis basically on
the same day in 2014,” says Villiotti. “The first emotion I felt
with the diagnosis was confusion. What was NASH? I had never
heard of it. And cirrhosis—I didn’t drink, how could I have
cirrhosis?”
He was astonished by the lack of information he and his wife,
Betsy, had about the potential outcomes of the disease. Cirrhosis,
which is irreversible scarring of the liver, almost always leads to a
transplant—or worse.
“People are surprised to learn that non-alcoholic liver disease
is a more common cause of liver cirrhosis than alcohol abuse.
Also, they are surprised to learn there are usually no symptoms,”
says Villiotti. “The day I was diagnosed with cirrhosis was the first
day I knew that NAFLD could lead to cirrhosis. I had NAFLD
for nine years before I was diagnosed with cirrhosis.”
Dr. Cristina Strahotin, a transplant hepatologist with
Allegheny Health Network who treated Villiotti after his cirrhosis
diagnosis, says she was not surprised to learn that Villiotti was
not told how far the disease could progress.
“This is a disease that starts slowly and that can progress
over 30 years or longer,” Dr. Strahotin says. “It develops slowly,
without symptoms. All you need is excessive body weight.
Patients may present with high blood pressure or diabetes, and
they’re simply told to exercise and to lose weight. They’re rarely
told how serious this condition could become.”
The frustrating part, Dr. Strahotin says, is that in its early
stages, fatty liver disease can be reversed through diet and
lifestyle changes. The liver is the only organ in the body that has
the capacity to regenerate.
“If you’re in stage two or even stage three of this disease, it’s
still reversible through diet and exercise,” she explains. “Once you
develop cirrhosis, the condition is no longer reversible. At that
stage, the goal is to preserve the liver in whatever state it is in for
as long as we can.”
For Villiotti, that meant MRIs every six months to monitor
his progress. And then, on March 17, 2017, he received
devastating news: he had liver cancer. The only cure would be a
liver transplant. He was added to the transplant list, and in the
meantime went through several rounds of radiation to ensure
that the tumor wouldn’t metastasize beyond the liver while he
waited.
“That emotion was fear and uncertainty and it was the first
time I really faced my own mortality,” he says. “I was either going
to get a transplant or I was going to die.”
Over the course of the following year, Villiotti would
experience a number of health emergencies—all related to his
liver’s inability to properly function—that would land him in the
hospital. He had bouts of hepatic encephalopathy (HE), which
caused toxins to filter into his bloodstream and ultimately to his
brain, causing extreme confusion; a bladder cancer scare; ascites,
which causes fluid to build up in the stomach area; and shortness
of breath from fluid building up in his lungs.
“There are four main complications that can arise from this
disease, and Tony experienced every one,” says Dr. Strahotin.
Continued on next page >
For more information about the documentary or NASH kNOWledge, visit www.nash-now.org.
CANON-MAC
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FALL 2019
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