Cleveland man ith PSC gets liver

[Guest guest]

Hudson man gets liver from member of church

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Fran

Henry

Plain Dealer Reporter

Jack Rigby cast a large net

looking for a liver donor, but as it happens, a small one would have been

enough.

Last fall, the retired Hudson dentist and his wife, marshaled friends, former

patients and relatives to help distribute 25,000 cards in Ohio and on the East Coast explaining that a progressive illness

was destroying his liver. They also distributed cards

at their church, St. in Hudson.

On Saturday, fellow parishioner

Carol donated her husband's liver to Rigby. Hudson resident Walter , 70, died from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Rigby, 56, is doing well after

a 10-hour surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, and may be home in seven to 10 days,

his wife said.

He was low on the official list

of patients awaiting transplants, but he feared no liver would be available

when he was ill enough to reach priority status. LifeBanc, a federally designated nonprofit organ-transplant

organization in Cleveland, criticized Rigby's public solicitation because it deprived

a sicker patient of a transplant.

" I'm so glad we didn't

have to wait until he was terribly sick, " Rigby said. " It doesn't have to be that way. It's

the last gift you can give. " The

couple were inspired to make Rigby's need public on

the eighth day of a novena, a nine-day prayer asking God for a special favor.

Their prayers reassured them

that he would get a transplant before primary sclerosing

cholangitis destroyed his liver completely. In the disease, scarring blocks the ducts that carry bile

to the stomach to help break down fat. The bile builds

up in the liver, causing it to deteriorate.

As Rigby went into surgery,

" a calmness settled over him. I knew he'd be

OK, " his wife said.

Being part of the donor

experience made her " want to give everything away I can [through organ

donation]. You can see that you save lives leaving

that. It's incredible, seeing how it works. "

Barb in Texas - Together in the Fight, Whatever it Takes!

Son Ken (33) UC 91 - PSC 99 Listed 7/21 @ Baylor Dallas