February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“That’s brotherly love,” said Dr Lewis Teperman, the surgeon who carried out the operation at the pioneering transplant center.
John Egan insisted otherwise: “I played a small role,” he said. Pointing to Dr. Teperman, he added: “He’s the real hero here.”
Gary Egan is 36 and is a co-owner of Pete’s Tavern on Irving Place in Manhattan. Opened in 1864, Pete’s is a New York institution. Many people would recognize it without ever having walked through its doors, because it’s been featured on television so often: CNN, VH-1, “Seinfeld,” “Law and Order” and Fox News, as well as on Sam Adams beer commercials and the Food Network. It’s also the bar where, aptly, O Henry often stopped to write his short stories, including his classic tale of unselfish love, “The Gift of the Magi.” His booth was the one closest to the front doors.
In “The Gift of the Magi,” a woman sells her beautiful hair in order to buy a watch fob for her lover’s prized possession, his watch. Unaware of her intentions, he pawns his watch in order to buy a set of combs for her to comb her hair. When they discover their losses, however, it simply deepens their love for each other.
In the case of the Egan brothers, there is no sense of loss, only gain. Gary, whose liver had been destroyed by an autoimmune disease, will now live, and Teperman said he would make a full recovery. John Egan gave 60 percent of his liver to his brother and in a couple of months — because his liver is perfectly healthy — it will regrow to almost its normal size and he will feel no ill effects.
The joint operation took seven hours and involved more than 25 staff, including Teperman and three other surgeons. The right lobe of the liver is removed and placed in the recipient. Teperman said that the renowned NYU Medical Center is experimenting with advanced preservation fluids as well, so that livers can be preserved for longer.
“There is a 1 percent chance you could die from donating a part of your liver,” said Teperman. He knows what he is talking about, having created the transplant center at NYU, and it has one of the highest success rates for these kinds of serious operations. The Egans’ experience, the procedure of donating live livers, is a new one, pioneered by some of New York’s leading hospitals, not least the NYU Medical Center.
It’s not without controversy, either, though it has been completely successful in most cases. Just last week, New York State Health Department proposed new rules for live liver transplants after a 57 year-old live liver donor died in Mount Sinai hospital.
But there can be no doubting the joy that the Egans’ successful operation has brought them.
“It’s a miracle, a miracle,” John Egan said.
“It’s a priceless gift,” said Gary, who will be able to return to his job within a few weeks.
“We can’t speak highly enough of Dr. Teperman,” John said. “I was Gary’s best man and he did best man for me. I thought I’d sooner give him a liver than be best man again,” he said, rolling his eyes in mock displeasure.
Gary Egan spoke passionately about the need for organ donation here in the U.S. and in Ireland.
This form of live donation is not yet available in Ireland, and he expressed frustration that so many people fail to make the decision to become a donor if, say, they were to have a fatal accident. Few people, he said, realize what it’s like to be on a waiting list for a transplant with so few organs available to go around, unless it happens to a close relative.
The liver, Teperman explained, is a complex vital organ that controls digestion, taking food and helping to turn some of it into proteins. It helps regulate many chemicals in the body and processes impurities.
“Drinking is not good for your liver,” said Teperman, but added that the most common reason for people to need a transplant in the U.S. is infection with Hepatitis C. Many caught this deadly disease years ago, before blood transplants were screened for Hepatitis C, as they are now. It may take years to advance, but it eventually destroys the liver.
“We do 80 operations per year,” he continued. “About a quarter are live donations. It doesn’t need to be a blood relative, it could be anyone. We just need to match blood type.” Also, he said, grinning, gender doesn’t matter — so a woman could end up with a liver from a man, or vice versa.
“That’s a very common question we get,” he said.
“It’s an amazing organ, he added. “[John] is fantastic now. To be honest, he can do anything — he could go for a drink this weekend, nothing too excessive, and he’d be fine.”
“When families are involved, they clearly understand the need,” he said. But until they are directly affected, “people just don’t know the need.”
In 10 years, he warned, there could be one million new cases of people dying of Hepatitis C liver failure.
“We’d like for people to become live donors,” he added, but stressed that it is not like donating a unit of blood.
“Firemen and policemen tend to offer to donate their liver, because they’re people who want to help,” he said, but stressed that the conditions are much stricter for live donating.
As for Gary Egan, Teperman said he’ll do just fine, though he will probably need to take medication for the rest of his life.
“He should be walking around this weekend. And he’ll be back to work in about two months.”
For further information on the transplant center at NYU medical center, visit the center’s web site at: http://transplant.med.nyu.edu.