See the Big Picture
Terry Fortner and his wife, Robbie, said they are grateful to the UAMS Liver Transplant Society.
| LITTLE ROCK – A recent liver transplant at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is the first in the state to use advanced technology that preserves donor livers and preserves them for longer. while.
The new technology allowed the Cabot man to receive a liver from a donor in Oklahoma a week after being placed on the waiting list and return home a week after the operation.
Patient Terry Fortner, 66, said he was told when he was placed on the transplant list Sept. 24 that it could take months, if not years, for a suitable donor liver to be in place. Close proximity to UAMS to be possible during removal. , transportation and replanting.
His UAMS transplant physician, Raj Patel, MD, praised the OrganOx metra device, which uses conventional perfusion to preserve the liver with oxygen and nutrients and maintains the organ at body temperature up to 12 hours, making sure that the organ is in great condition. to transplant.
Patel said organs begin to deteriorate quickly after removal, and the condition they are in when they arrive affects the difficulty of surgery and the extent of post-operative measures such as bleeding. He said Fortner’s donor liver, though LifeShare of Oklahoma, a nonprofit organ procurement organization, was in excellent condition after being transferred to UAMS from Tulsa, which helped prevent any major complications during the operation. The six-hour operation began on September 30 and ended. beginning of October 1.
Without the technology, Patel said, Fortner might have found a matching donor liver but faced a more difficult recovery that required a longer hospital stay. He said the perfusion technology not only makes the liver an oxygen donor but also allows surgeons to test the liver before transplant, which will reduce the risk to the patient.
UAMS hopes to have an OrganOx metra machine in 2023, Patel said.
“Our main goal is to increase the number of livers, so we can test the liver and perform complex liver transplants,” he said.
Fortner, senior pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church in Cabot, said he was diagnosed five or six years ago with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition so common around the world that it’s called the epidemic. The United States is linked to malnutrition and obesity. He said he weighed 340 pounds before, in 2020, “my oncologist convinced me to take this seriously.”
Changing his diet helped Fortner slowly lose weight while having blood work done every six months to monitor the progress of the disease. Then in July, blood tests showed that Fortner would need a liver transplant immediately, and his doctor sent him to UAMS.
Fortner said the UAMS team “put me through every test imaginable” in preparing to put him on the transplant list, which happened while he was hospitalized with a fever and his condition suddenly worsened.
Patel said patients like Fortner who have lived with a diagnosis of liver disease for years tend to get worse very quickly, and the condition is very dangerous, with some patients eventually becoming too ill to receive a transplant.
Then on the night of September 29, he heard the good news – “They said, ‘We found a match’.”
Fortner and his family spent the entire day of September 30 waiting for the donor organ to arrive and be ready for transplant, and the surgery began that night.
Five weeks later, and now up to 243 pounds, he says, “I feel really good.”
The Fortners discussed liver transplants during their visit to UAMS.
Fortner said he and his wife, Robbie, have four grown children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild, “and we’re all very happy that I’m still here.”
“I give God praise for these answered prayers,” Fortner said. “He is doing miracles through these doctors. UAMS is full of wonderful, professional, caring people. “
His wife Robbie added: “Even the people who come in clean the rooms.”
LifeShare is the first organ procurement organization in the United States to own and operate the metra OrganOx device, which was approved by the FDA in January for use in transplants and was first used in May in Oklahoma.
“LifeShare is proud of the work we’ve done to advance liver donation in the donation and transplant field to save lives,” said Jeffrey Orlowski, president and CEO of LifeShare. “It’s partners like the University of Arkansas for Health Sciences that make the effort possible.”
UAMS is the only health sciences university in the state, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; graduate school; hospital; the main library in Little Rock; the Northwest Arkansas campus in Fayetteville; a network of regional centers as a whole; and seven centers: Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Center, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Center, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Center for Neuroscience, Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging, Translational Research Center and Health Center by Digital & Innovation. . UAMS includes UAMS Health, a state health system that includes all UAMS hospital businesses. UAMS is the largest Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,240 students, 913 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, regional centers, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, TwitterYouTube or Instagram.
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