CORINNE, Box Elder County — A second chance for life feels somewhat miraculous, but a Corinne man is getting a third chance, courtesy of a liver transplant.
When Kelton Bronson, 29, left University of Utah Hospital Wednesday, he received an escort home from colleagues and friends in the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office, where he's a deputy. In Corinne, friends, family and neighbors lined his street to welcome him.
Bronson was born with biliary atresia, a liver and bile duct disease that is unusual and potentially deadly. When he was 9 months old, his mother Yvonne Bronson donated a segment of her liver in an experimental operation at the University of Chicago Hospital. He was just the third person in the United States to receive a living-donor liver transplant.
Last fall, he started to have health problems that he and his wife Kelsee later learned stemmed from liver failure. The Deseret News chronicled his need for a new liver after Bronson was hospitalized in early February.
Being listed for transplant put Bronson among nearly 14,000 people waiting for a liver transplant in the United States. Unlike some who are sent home to wait and hope a liver will be available, Bronson was so sick and fragile from the start of the process that he stayed in the hospital and entered the transplant list near the top.
Who gets a liver transplant when an organ is available depends on many factors, including blood type and how sick the person needing a transplant is, determined by an algorithm called a MELD score. MELD stands for Model End-stage Liver Disease, and is based on concentration of creatinine, bilirubin, sodium and albumin levels in the blood.
"The higher the MELD score, the more likely one is to die within the next few months if no transplant occurs," United Network for Organ Sharing spokeswoman Anne Paschke told the Deseret News.
Bronson was in dire condition and his MELD was high when he was placed on the list.
He was transplanted in a very long surgery in early March. But it hasn't been an entirely smooth ride for the young man, who endured a second surgery to remove his spleen.
"The doctor told us with these biliary atresia kids, when the spleen goes bad it doesn't tend to recover," his mother said, adding he's still weak and is having physical therapy to regain his strength.
But he's already healthier than he was before the transplant. A healthy liver is key to survival and it's an organ assigned numerous complex tasks. According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network's guide to transplantable organs, the liver stores vitamins, processes carbohydrates, fats and proteins and transforms nutrients absorbed as food passes into the intestines into materials the body needs, including blood clotting factors. The liver helps break down fats and toxins, too.
"We are so ecstatic to have him home," said older sister Kylie Bronson. "It will be very good for his mental health and to be around family while he recovers at home. We are hopeful that being home and more comfortable will speed up parts of the recovery."
Doctors have prepared the Bronsons for a long recovery and the fact they might face a few hurdles. "We know it will be a long but exciting journey ahead," wife Kelsee Bronson said. "The surgeon did say don't be surprised if we come back in the next couple of months for some fine-tuning of everything."
"We are so proud of him and all that he has gone through," Kylie Bronson said. "He is the toughest guy I know and he is so anxious to return back to work, and doing what he loves, but he's aware of the process and that it is going to take time.
"Our family is ready to have our Kelton back!" she added.
Although this is his second transplant, Kelton and Kelsee Bronson are still learning what to expect and how to manage his recovery. But his mom and dad Corey Bronson figure perhaps the best medicine of all — apart, of course, from a healthy liver — will be healing in familiar surroundings with his wife and their little boys Winston, 2, and Mason, 4, right there.
