Five years after liver transplant, Madison Township man shares story of gratitude

MADISON TOWNSHIP - Five years after a liver transplant, Steve Reeder is thankful to be alive.

Reeder, 54, said he was likely days away from death when he received his liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic on April 10, 2013.

"If I wouldn't have got the liver when I did, I wouldn't be here right now,” he said during an interview in his Madison Township home, across the street from the house where he grew up.

Reeder, a Mansfield-area native and 1981 Northmor graduate, started to feel poorly in the summer of 2011. He was tired all the time.

“I was, like, 48 years old. Thought I was just getting old," said Reeder, wearing a black "Donate Life" T-shirt.

Reeder’s wife, Nina, convinced him to go his local family doctor, who ran tests and told him it might be cancer. His doctor later told him it was cirrhosis of the liver and set up an appointment for him at the Cleveland Clinic.

Reeder said he wasn't surprised by the initial diagnosis, as both his father and grandfather died of cirrhosis.

But with more testing, his doctors eventually learned in September 2011 he had Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic liver disease. Reeder said he now knows that’s what caused his father's and grandfather's deaths.

As time passed, Reeder's skin and eyes developed a yellow hue, a common sign of liver problems, and his body retained huge quantities of fluid. He was so tired, and he slept all the time. He also started hallucinating because of ammonia buildups in his body.

Reeder, who worked 22 years at Crane Plumbing, had to stop working because his symptoms were so severe.

In April 2012, Reeder was added to the transplant list for a new liver. He was frequently in and out of the hospital.

By the fall of 2012, Reeder was retaining so much fluid, he had to go to the doctor every two weeks to drain off nearly a dozen liters of fluid at a time.

"I'd lose, like, 15, 20 pounds just from taking that fluid off,” he said.

Reeder’s doctors were collecting blood to run tests every two weeks, and at the beginning of April 2013, his doctors told him to get to the Cleveland Clinic immediately, as his liver was causing his kidneys to shut down.

In the hospital, Reeder said he remembers very little. His ammonia was building up again, and it was causing him to hallucinate, seeing snipers on the hospital roof outside his window and asking for his rifle so he could shoot them.

He wouldn’t stop singing “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne, and he had a wild hallucination of former President Barack Obama in a blender with peanut butter.

"It was really out there,” he said.

After about a week, he was set to be discharged, as his doctors told him there was nothing else they could do for him unless he got a new liver.

"They was sending me home basically to die because they said there wasn't nothing else they could do for me,” he said.

His nurses were just getting ready to start his discharge paperwork on April 9, 2013, when the transplant coordinator called and told them to stop.

"Told me don't go anywhere,” Reeder said. “We've got a liver."

Reeder was immediately prepped and taken into surgery. At 2:30 a.m. on April 10, 2013, his doctors started a 10-hour surgery to replace his liver.

"I go well, you know, if God wants this to happen, he'll make it happen,” he said. “And then they called me and told me that they had a liver for me, so it was like God was there right on time because if I wouldn't have got that liver then, I wouldn't be here right now."

After the surgery, Reeder's doctors told him the liver pinked up right away, showing the transplant was successful — but it wasn't all smooth sailing. One of the surgeons told Reeder’s wife and son that if he knew how bad Reeder's condition was, he wouldn't have operated.

Reeder's blood was extremely thin and ran out of him like water, so he had to have blood pumped into him constantly during the surgery.

“He said he didn't know if I was gonna make it through the surgery or not,” Reeder said of his surgeon.

But when Reeder woke up, he and his family could tell he was better almost immediately. His wife, Nina, was shocked to see his eyes had lost their yellow hue and were back to a normal white.

"I just looked so, my skin color and everything was just so much better,” he said.

Reeder said he was only in the intensive care unit for about a day-and-a-half, and within a week, he was discharged.

About a month after his transplant, in May 2013, his doctors checked his bloodwork and again told him to get to the hospital immediately. They determined he had graft versus host disease.

"I had been sick for so long, and the new liver was healthy," he said. "It was actually taking over my body."

Reeder was in the hospital for three weeks, and he was taken off most of his medicine. Because of that incident, he doesn’t have to take a lot of medicine now.

After he got better, his doctors told him it’s very rare for a liver transplant patient to get the condition and told him he only had a 1.5 percent of chance of living through it.

"They didn't tell me that. They go, well, we didn't want you worrying,” he said. "Once again, God brought me through that."

After he had healed, Reeder knew he wanted to share his story with others.

He contacted Lifeline of Ohio to start volunteering as an ambassador and began sharing his story with churches and schools. He also volunteers as an ambassador with Lifebanc of Ohio. He’s been volunteering about four years.

"I figured God gave me another lease on life. I needed to let people know how important it was for organ donation 'cause if that whoever wouldn't have been an organ donor, I wouldn't be here now,” he said. “So I wanted everybody, wanted people to know how important that is."

This Sunday, he'll share his story at his church, Shelby First Free Will Baptist Church. The service starts at 11 a.m. at the church, 2598 E. Smiley Ave., Shelby.

Each year, Reeder celebrates his "liverversary" on the anniversary of his transplant, April 10. April is also National Donate Life Month.

The first year, his wife got him a cake shaped like a liver. This year, the celebration was a little more mellow. Reeder said he and his family went out to dinner and went for a drive. Reeder enjoyed the low-key day, just appreciating being alive.

The day before, he visited his transplant surgeon in Cleveland. The surgeon told him his health is in good shape.

These days, Reeder, who’s retired, enjoys fishing, baking and spending time with his wife Nina, son Levi and his wife and two grandkids, who live nearby.

"Just living life now and kind of taking it easy and doing some stuff I want to do,” he said. “Ready for fishing season to start, if it ever warms up."

Reeder said he doesn’t know anything about his donor, but whoever it is, he’s incredibly grateful for them.

One donor has the potential to save up to eight lives and restore the lives of more than 50 people through organ, eye and tissue donation, according to Lifeline of Ohio. Organ donations include hearts, lungs, kidneys, livers, pancreases and small bowels, while tissue donations include corneas, bone, fascia, skin, veins and heart valves.

"At Lifeline of Ohio, we are blessed every day to witness miracles," Lifeline of Ohio CEO G. Kent Holloway said in a press packet. "These miracles rely on the generosity and dedication of many, starting with the heroes of organ, eye and tissue donation. Their selfless gifts save and heal the lives of recipients, sending ripples of impacts into the community. Their gifts give comfort to their own families during times of grief. Triumph over tragedy."

Organ donation usually happens when a person dies on a ventilator, which Lifeline of Ohio reports is less than 1 percent of all deaths.

Lifeline of Ohio reports there are nearly 115,000 people on the national waiting list for organ transplants. In Ohio, there are more than 2,900 people on the list.

According to Lifeline of Ohio, about 20 times a day, someone dies because of a lack of an available organ. In Ohio, it's once every 40 hours that an Ohioan dies waiting.

In Ohio in 2017, 412 Ohioans donated organs at the time of their death, resulting in 1,274 transplanted organs, Lifeline of Ohio reported. Nationwide, nearly 35,000 organ transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2017.

According to Lifeline of Ohio, 58.2 percent of Ohioans and 60.8 percent of Richland County residents are registered organ, eye and tissue donors.

Lifeline of Ohio media and public relations coordinator Jessica Petersen said there are many myths about organ donation, including that someone can be too old or ineligible if they've had certain diseases.

Petersen said the oldest organ donor was 92 years told and donated his liver to a 70-year-old, while the oldest tissue donor was 107 years old and donated his corneas to two people.

"You're never too old," she said. "You can have a really healthy 92-year-old and a really unhealthy 22-year-old. You just never know."

Lifeline of Ohio reports organ recovery coordinators will review a person's medical history to determine if they can donate, with people with diabetes or people who had cancer who are now-cancer free potentially able to donate.

Reeder wants others to understand how important organ, eye and tissue donation is, which is why he continues to share his story in the community.

“When you leave this world, you can't take your organs with you, so you might as well, if you can leave them to help somebody else have a better life, then, you know, donate them,” he said. “They could help a lot of people."

Ohio residents interested in becoming organ donors can register online at bmv.ohio.gov if they have a valid Ohio driver's license or state identification card or call Lifeline of Ohio at 800-525-5667 for a paper Ohio Donor Registry Enrollment Form. Non-Ohio residents can visit registerme.org.

ejmills@mansfieldnewsjournal.com

419-521-7205

Twitter: @EmilyMills818