Son gladly gives part of liver to save his father

Three generations of the Waddell family heard the doctor’s verdict at the same time.

To live, Lewis Waddell Jr. had to have a new liver.

Not later. Now. Immediately, the Charlotte doctor told Lew, as friends he grew up with here know him, and his dad, Lewis Waddell Sr. of East Colonial Drive, and his only child, Michael.

He couldn’t be put on an organ list.

That would probably take two years, and Lew’s diseased liver wouldn’t last that long.

“He needs a donor now,” the doctor said, a donor who could give Lew 65 to 70 percent of his own liver immediately. Transplanting a portion of a liver is no longer uncommon, though it’s still done much less frequently than transplanting an entire liver. The partial transplant eliminates the wait.

Lewis (Sr.) didn’t hesitate.

“He’s got a donor,” he said.

But the doctor shook his head.

“He said I was too dern old,” he adds, but he didn’t have time to get upset. “Michael was sitting right there, and he said, ‘Well, here’s another one.’ ”

His response was as instant as his grandfather’s.

He’d gladly give life to the father who gave him life, he said, so the big question was answered, and the doctor immediately began making arrangements.

The best places in the country for that surgery, he said, are the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville and at a hospital in Nebraska.

“Of the two, he recommended Charlottesville,” Lewis says.

That was a special bonus.

Michael, who had just been named assistant director of athletics for external relations at the University of Akron in Ohio, had worked with the present athletic director at the University of Virginia when he was with the Virginia Sports Network. So he has a lot of friends there, and the place would be familiar.

From then on, everything went fast.

“They moved quickly to have it as soon as possible,” says Lew’s mother, Charlsye Waddell.

Lew, who will be 59 on Aug. 3, had to arrange to be out of work for six months, his first prolonged absence from his law practice in Newton, which he joined in 1966 after he got his AB degree in political science and his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

And Michael, who’s 32 and married with two children, just began his job in Akron last month.

But both were in Charlottesville for the surgery last Thursday.

Surgeons worked from about 6 a.m. until a little past 3 p.m. to remove a portion of Michael’s liver and finished the transplant on Lew between 10 and 11 that night.

And that also meant a long wait beside the telephone here for Lewis Sr. and Charlsye, who had spent months already worrying about their son.

They had noticed he was losing weight, Charlsye says, “and getting weak and weak and weaker, but he wouldn’t talk to us about it.”

“We knew there was something wrong,” Lewis says, “but we didn’t know what it was or how serious it was. Until he was certain, he wasn’t going to say anything. He didn’t want to worry his parents.

“But several months ago, he was to the point that he needed someone to go with him to see a specialist at Chapel Hill, and he was nervous. He was bound to be — and I found out why. That was when I became aware of how serious the situation was. I still feel the shock.”

He and Charlsye weren’t in Charlottesville when the surgery took place.

Lewis is a retired banker who has been active in a wide variety of civic and religious causes. Charlsye, a former longtime member of the Rowan Public Library’s bookmobile staff, is dealing with severe osteoporosis and is largely confined to a chair.

“She couldn’t go,” says her husband, “and I couldn’t go and leave her here. She wanted me to send her to a rest home, and I said absolutely not. She needs somebody around the clock, and I’m it, and I’m going to stay it.”

So Heidi, Michael’s wife, kept them advised throughout the day — and before and after.

But Lewis admits that he got a little impatient by the end of that long surgery.

“Right after the operation, I picked up the phone and called the hospital and talked to the nurse,” he says. “I wasn’t content. I wanted to go the horse’s mouth. I’m still not content. I got a few more gray hairs if there’s any more room up there for them.”

Of course, they stay in contact constantly by phone.

Lew is still in intensive care, but he’s stable and showing progress, his mother says, and he’s still sedated enough to be in no pain.

“He’ll be in the hospital up there at least six weeks, maybe longer, depending on how he progresses.”

Michael had an allergic reaction to the painkiller and still hurts, but he’s all right and has been up walking in the halls.

“They said he’d be there four weeks,” Charlsye says, “but he told his wife he was coming home next week, so we don’t really know. And he called us. He sounded awful weak, but he called.”

And if you want to call Lewis or Charlsye Waddell, do it. They want to hear from friends right now. But don’t tie up the phone too long.

Their telephone is their lifeline to Charlottesville, Va. That’s where their hearts are now.

Contact Rose Post at 704-797-4251 or rpost@salisburypost.com .