People get serious ailments all the time. And if the disease or tumor or whatever it is is caught in time, most often treatment and surgery procedures can eliminate the issue, and the patient learns to
live with the things as life continues on.
Except for organ transplant patients. That is a totally different life.
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For one, there is agonizing pain and discomfort when confronted with the issue. Then, the bad news is the prognosis that your own body has an organ that is not functioning as it should, nor will it ever again. That in itself is devastating news. Your organ isn’t working well and will never heal. In fact, the situation will only become worse.
Then another bit of bad news. That organ must be extracted from your body.
When reality sinks in, the next set of news: another organ must take its place. This means, not something you run down to Lowe’s and grab off the shelf. Another organ. From another person. Oh, one more thing, you are on a waiting list. That in itself equates to the fact that your body might not be able to postpone its ability to produce while another substitute organ is available. You may become a statistic of how many folks pass away while on a wait list.
Then, even if you find an organ donor who passed away suddenly within the past week, and your turn comes, next up is the actual surgery. Take an organ out, replace it with the donor organ, then reattach all the connecting pieces.
Up next, will your body accept the new organ? Consider that the other person could be nothing like you at all.
What if the organ doesn’t take? What if your body decides that there is a foreigner intertwined, and something isn’t right, and we aren’t doing this at all?
Former Browns legend Bernie Kosar has gone through all of this. And still is.
Back in mid-November, he had a liver transplant. He had two other surgeries planned for the weekends prior, and both were canceled because there were issues with the donor organ. Both times. Finally, a young man tragically lost his life, and Kosar was the recipient of his young liver.
One month later, while recuperating at University Hospital in Cleveland, Kosar was sent home. He was hospitalized again on December 10 with E. coli blood poisoning and sent home after one week.
But things did not go well. Kosar’s body was not accepting the liver. On January 7, he was admitted back into the hospital for evaluation.
Doctors set up IV treatment 24/7 to help the patient accept the organ. That has worked so far, and Kosar is about to be released once again.
This time, he is making some plans other than sitting around the house. Kosar is attending a concert at the House of Blues on Saturday, highlighted by his friend Paul Sidoti, a Cleveland native and guitarist. Next, off to be on the sidelines Monday watching his alma mater Miami Hurricanes versus the Indiana Hoosiers in the college football National Championship Game.
Kosar is still focusing on his health issues despite the heavy schedule for the coming week. He is getting around, which was an issue before the setback. He is receiving lots of encouragement, and through social media, he is giving it back with acknowledgement.
And he is not sulking about his condition.
For now, the liver is settling in. The very act of seeing the Browns legend begin to get back into life and out of the hospital scene appears to be the clearest sign yet that better days are on the horizon.
We love you, Bernie. Continue to get your health right.
