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Organ transplant
Patient Information
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Transplant Center Marks Milestone
LEXINGTON, Ky. (January 4, 2006) −Connie Armistead awoke at 5 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving to realize her husband of 36 years was not beside her in bed. She found her husband Charles Armistead unresponsive, in a near comatose state, slumped over in the bathroom. He was rushed by ambulance to a hospital in Charleston, W.Va., where he was told by doctors that he only had a few months to live unless a donor liver could be found and surgeons could perform a life-saving transplant.
Armistead had a condition called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) which is characterized by inflammation of the liver associated with the accumulation of fat in the liver.
“His liver was basically destroying itself,” said Dr. Dinesh Ranjan, professor of surgery, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, and director of the UK Liver and Pancreas Transplant programs.
The condition had been diagnosed 15 years earlier, but had accelerated at a frightening pace in recent months. The Elkview, W.Va., resident urgently needed a new liver in order to save and prolong his life. At 8:30 a.m. the call came from UK that a liver was available, and by 1 p.m. Armistead was in Lexington at the UK Chandler Medical Center Transplant Center.
Armistead received a donor liver in a ten hour procedure ending early Thanksgiving Day. The surgery was performed by Ranjan and Dr. Thomas Johnston, associate professor of surgery, UK College of Medicine and director of the UK Transplant Clinic and Kidney Transplantation Program.
Statistics suggest Armistead will have about a 90 percent chance of a successful recovery, but he respectfully disagrees with this assessment.
“I’m too stubborn not to stick around and bother my wife and continue to be there for my son (28 year-old Christopher),” Armistead said. “I give myself a 100 percent chance for a full recovery.”
Armistead not only received his life-saving liver transplant on Thanksgiving Day, but he was also the Transplant Center’s 300th liver-transplant patient.
“My doctors and nurses here at the UK Transplant Center saved my life, and with the love and support of my family and community, I intend to stick around for a long time to be able to thank them.” Armistead said. He and his family also encourage organ donation.
“Someone out there in death gave me life, and for that, I am eternally grateful,” Armistead said.
This year, the UK Liver Transplant Program celebrated its 10th anniversary of making transplant miracles happen for the citizens of the Commonwealth. The program is recognized nationally by the United Network of Organ Sharing and the University Hospital Consortium for maintaining excellent outcomes.
The UK transplant team consists of doctors, nurses, social workers, dieticians, pharmacists, financial counselors and other dedicated health care professionals, all working together to care for patients throughout the entire transplant process.
Armistead is out of the hospital and will be with his family this holiday season. He begins the New Year with a new liver and a new lease on life. To learn more about the liver transplant program at UK, call (859) 323-4661 to speak with a member of the transplant team.
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