Liver transplant recipient smiling through the pain

liver411

By Larry Altman
DAILY BREEZE (http://www.dailybreeze.com)


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Allan Otake is in pain and taking pill after pill, but he’s alive and grateful.


The former Gardena police detective said he didn’t know how close he was to death three weeks ago when he made it to the top of the liver transplant list and was fortunate to receive one.


“I didn’t know that until after the transplant — that I only had a short time left unless I got the transplant,” Otake said in a telephone interview from his room at a hospital guest center.


The 49-year-old single father of two teenage boys was released from St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles and is living in the hospital’s family center, because doctors want him to remain close.


Other than the fact that “everything hurts,” the Torrance man says he’s doing well.


“They are saying it’s good. This new liver is starting to take hold,” he said. “I’m just totally grateful for all the people that rallied behind me.”


Earlier this month, Otake’s prognosis was poor. His voice weak, he talked of his need for a liver to save his life. Doctors suspect he contracted hepatitis C during his 28-year police career when he was stuck with a needle or while struggling with a bleeding suspect. He then developed a cancerous tumor on the organ and needed a transplant.


The good news came Aug. 15 in a telephone call a short time after a doctor’s appointment at the hospital.


“I had just gotten home,” he said. “My mom got me back to the house. As soon as I opened the door it was the liver center (on the phone). They said, ‘Come back right now.’ ”


Otake knows nothing about the donor, who was a 52-year-old patient at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance. Doctors do not tell patients about donors or tell the donor families about the people receiving their organs.


As they prepared him for surgery, Otake had no idea about the obstacles conspiring to thwart his operation.


A team of St. Vincent doctors on their way to Harbor-UCLA to remove the transplant donor’s organs became stuck in a traffic nightmare. A tanker truck had overturned on the Harbor (110) Freeway, spilling fuel and shutting down the southbound lanes.


The doctors found themselves on Vermont Avenue in Gardena, flagged down officer Mark Thompson and told him they needed to quickly get to the hospital. One of the transplant patients, they said, was to be a police officer.


Thompson escorted them to the hospital.


“I heard that later on,” Otake said. “They flagged down the police car. It just happened to be a Gardena cop. I can’t believe the coincidence involved in all this.”


Otake was wheeled into surgery about 8 p.m., two hours after originally scheduled. He said he was frightened, not knowing what would happen.


“My main concern was whether I was going to open my eyes again,” Otake said.


Otake’s doctor, Hector Ramos, said everything went well during the six hours of surgery. Otake remembers little of the ordeal, except waking up in the intensive care ward.


The pain since, he said, has been unbelievable.


“I can’t believe the way my body looks. It looked like it was ‘fragged in Nam,’ ” he said. “There are scars everywhere.”


Otake, calling himself a “bubble boy,” remains in his room in near insolation. People around him must wear masks to prevent infection. He will remain there for several weeks so doctors can closely monitor him.


In the care center, he’s learning his new schedule to take pills and trying to build his strength. He looks forward to an end to the pain.


“I couldn’t even fathom the amount of pain,” he said. “If I don’t have medication, it hurts so bad I can’t even roll over.”


Although he’s in pain, he’s glad to be alive. He’s grateful to the donor, knowing somebody else died to save him.


“It’s mixed feelings,” he said. “Somebody else had to lose a loved one so that my family can keep a loved one. That part is hard to accept, but at the same time, you are grateful that your family still has you.”


Publish Date:August, 30, 2002
  















   




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