UNMC and its partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have reached a milestone shared by only five other transplant centers in the country by performing more than 2,000 liver transplants.
“It’s an extraordinary milestone,” said Alan Langnas, D.O., chief of transplantation at The Nebraska Medical Center and UNMC professor of surgery. “It means so much to all of the people who began the program and those who have worked tirelessly, investing so much time and energy into making this program possible.”
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“It’s an incredible thing to think all of the wonderful and heroic patients over the years who have inspired us to keep doing what we’re doing and, of course, try to do it better all of the time,” Dr. Langnas said.
Patients like 2-year-old Cameron Brecka of Staplehurst, Neb. The once healthy toddler was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare type of liver cancer, one day before his second birthday.
“All I could say was ‘Oh my!'” said Casey Brecka, Cameron’s mother. “We realized that we were dealing with something pretty awful.”
Cameron started on chemotherapy, which didn’t prove effective against the tumor; and it couldn’t be removed surgically because the tumor had grown into the blood vessels of the liver. That left Cameron and the Brecka family in the hands of the liver transplant team.
“It’s hard to watch a stranger take your child down a long hallway to the operating room for a liver transplant,” Casey Brecka said. “But it was easier knowing that a hand-picked, well-trained and experienced transplant surgeon was waiting for him.”
That surgeon, Debra Sudan, M.D., knew when she went in to the O.R. that the 2,000th liver transplant would be performed that night. She didn’t know which of the three patients it would be.
“It turned out to be Cameron and I was happy for him. He is a very nice little boy and his family is wonderfully supportive and just a pleasure to care for,” Dr. Sudan said. “To be No. 2000 is nice for the family. For our program, I think it shows that we have a lot of experience and when it comes to transplantation you can’t have too much experience.”
That experience can be traced back nearly 20 years to the program’s first liver transplant patient Frank Wood. His wife, Hazel, remembers the medical team fondly.
“I am extremely grateful to those who took care of Frank. They allowed us many more happy years together,” she said. Frank Wood, transplanted in 1985, died from Alzheimer’s disease in October 2002 at the age of 71.
“I know Frank would have been very pleased to hear about the 2,000th transplant. He’d be pleased to know how far they’ve come,” Hazel Wood said.
Only five other transplant centers have reached 2,000 liver transplants. They are: UCLA, Pittsburgh, Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Baylor, and Mt. Sinai in New York.
Registered nurse Laurie Williams helped care for Wood after he was transplanted. She continues her work with the transplant team and says even after 2,000 patients nothing is routine.
“We may have been a bit more ‘nervous’ for the first transplant and how everything would fit together and we might now be a bit more adept at anticipating problems and finding solutions, but every patient and family situation is unique and challenging,” Williams said. “It’s having the ability, knowledge and skill to help preserve life and the caring and thoughtfulness to form unforgettable relationships that keeps us all coming back day after day.”
The impact of the transplant team’s emotional investment is immeasurable. The economic impact, however, tops a half billion dollars. Since the program first began in July 1985, liver transplantation has brought approximately $578,592,000 into the state of Nebraska, including the Omaha metropolitan area.
“Most importantly, having done 2000 transplants is a tribute to the many donor families that have given the gift of life in their time of tragedy,” Dr. Sudan said. “The recipients have no way to repay this gift, but are very grateful that there are so many generous people here in our country.”
“I am forever indebted to these people,” said Casey Brecka. “I don’t even have the words to express how grateful I am. They saved my son’s life.”
“We are lucky to have brilliant surgeons, extraordinary caseworkers, nurses, psychologists and child specialists who grab on to the challenge of transplant,” Dr. Langnas said. “When you really get down to it, it’s because we’re in Nebraska. Special people live here. I think that it’s the Nebraskans and the Nebraskan approach to the world that has allowed us to become what we are – a world-class transplant center committed to serious medicine and extraordinary care.”