L
Tony Villiotti and his daughter, Gina Madison, Executive Director of NASH
kNOWledge, on the one-year anniversary of his liver transplant.
On a Mission
to Help
Others
Through a documentary
and nonprofit organization,
liver transplant survivor
hopes to pay it forward.
BY JENNIFER BROZAK
34
724.942.0940 TO ADVERTISE
❘
icmags.com
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,