Two decades ago, Lyle Thacker became the recipient of the first liver transplant ever performed in Utah. Since that successful surgery at LDS Hospital, 554 others have followed in his wake, including members of the hospital's transplant program.
On Tuesday, Thacker joined medical staff, other transplant recipients and family members of deceased donors to celebrate the program's 20th anniversary and national Donor Awareness Month.
"It is my pleasure to be here, to be seen and not viewed," joked the 74-year-old Pleasant Grove man, who, 10 years ago, also had a kidney transplant at LDS Hospital.
Thacker said he never doubted that his surgery would be a success, despite his doctor's comments that the procedure had previously only been performed on pigs, because the program's reputation depended on it.
"I kept asking him what happened to the pigs . . . never did get an answer," Thacker said Tuesday.
At the time, liver transplant surgery, one of the most technically difficult because of the organ's complexity and the number of connections to other organs, had only a 50 percent survival rate. Today, the rate is closer to 90 percent, said Dr. LeGrand Belnap, medical director of transplantation services at LDS Hospital.
Organ and tissue donors are vital to continued medical success, Belnap said. More than 90,000 people in the United States are currently waiting for an organ transplant, but less than 50 percent of possible donors give their organs.
"That is the source of the life we hope to give with organ transplantation," Belnap said.
Lucille Jensen and her husband made the difficult decision to donate their 17-year-old son's organs and tissue when he died in October 1998. The donation of the teenage boy's liver, heart, kidneys and pancreas saved the lives of four people, and his tissue improved the quality of life of countless others, Jensen said Tuesday.
It didn't bring Conrad Jensen back, but it did make the pain easier for the family to bear. "It gave us meaning . . . and it honored Conrad's life and his love for others," Jensen said.
Tuesday's event was an emotional reunion for LDS Hospital's former patients and the program's medical staff, particularly Dr. Terry Box, himself a recipient of a liver transplant.
"Today, for me, I am overwhelmed by emotion. I had no idea how much this would affect me," Box said.
Launching the transplant program was not an easy task, he said, from battles with insurance companies to get them to cover the expensive procedure to debates with the hospital's own staff about the appropriateness of such a surgery.
But the program has flourished, and Box on Tuesday thanked many of his patients for the success. "I feel particularly bonded because of your trust in me and my experience with you."
For more information about organ donation in Utah and to register to become a donor, visit www.yesutah.org.
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com