"They found a liver!"

Extremely good news! At 9:30 ET this morning, David called to tell me that that they may have a liver for him and he would know more by 1:00. At 12:00, I called Dad and found out that David was in surgery.

All of this reminded me of one of my most vivid memories from David's 1st experience with a transplant, back in September 1981. At that time, the entire process was so new and experimental. There was no organ procurement network (like UNOS), so any hospital that did transplants had to have its own procurement process in place.

By the end of September, David's condition was extremely grave, so Dad was in Pittsburgh full time with my mom. Family friends drove Rebecca and I to Pittsburgh, and there was really a sense that we were going in to pay our final respects. David had been in a coma for 3 weeks and his kidneys had failed. Given this was the pre-cell phone era, there was no way to get in touch with us during the trip with an update. So all of us were pleasantly shocked and surprised to walk on the hallway where David's room was only to see Dad waiting for us in front of David's room. As soon as we were in his line of sight, Dad shouted: "they found a liver!".

As of 5:00PM ET today, David is still in surgery. Owing to the fact that this isn't his first transplant, lots of scar tissue has built up and they are still working on removing his current liver. The total process could take 12 hours or longer.

David is extremely fortunate that Dr. Andreas Tzakis is performing this transplant, as he did the last two in 1999. The family is very grateful for all of Dr. Tzakis's efforts supporting David over the years. He's truly our hero.

Dr. Tzakis is supported by an incredible team of doctors, nurses and other health professionals in Ft. Lauderdale (where David started this most recent expedition) and Miami who have given us complete confidence in their ability to care for David, treat him, and bring him back to health. We are thankful to them.

The outpouring of support from friends, colleagues and others has been incredible. Since he's unable to connect with everyone in person, Dad asked me to the Hawthorn School District 73 family for all of their cards, letters, and prayers.

Also, a big thank you from our family to David's entire extended family as well as all the friends, colleagues, and others who have lent their support.

David still has many hurdles to get through on his way to recovery. The transplant is just the beginning of the recovery process. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers, and please add comments to the blog as well.