On a 1-to-10 scale, doctors tell transplant patient he's "a 9.5"

By Julia Sommerfeld
Seattle Times staff reporter

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES After a 7-1/2-hour surgery that finished around 2:30 a.m. yesterday, liver-transplant recipient Jack Slater is comforted by his wife, Deborah Swets, in the University of Washington Medical Center's intensive-care unit.

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"I feel sooo good, maybe because it's over ... maybe it's the drugs," he said yesterday, grinning slyly. He was recovering in the intensive-care unit at the University of Washington Medical Center.

In a 7-1/2-hour surgery that finished around 2:30 a.m. yesterday, transplant surgeon Dr. Adam Levy removed Slater's liver, its diseased state apparent in the gray-green color and knotty scar tissue, and sewed in its place a smooth, pink donor organ. As a matter of policy, the donor's identity is kept secret.

Slater, 58, has gotten over the first hurdle — waking up and breathing on his own, Levy said. "Right now, he's tracking along," Levy said. "The new liver looks like it's starting to kick in."

But the road ahead is lined with a series of perils. Slater, however, is honeymooning with his new liver.

"The last moments before surgery, I felt like a guy going down the coal mines for the first time. You paid your union dues and now you've got to go down there and get to work," he said. "Today, I woke up and felt like I owned the coal mine."

The swirl of the past 24 hours had Slater's wife, Deborah Swets, wondering if it's all been a dream: "It's still really surreal for both of us. This thing that we've been waiting to happen, I can't absorb that it's real."

About this project Jack Slater is on a medical leave from Seattle Public Schools, where he teaches history. He was born in Chicago, graduated from Calvin College in Michigan and worked for 20 years as an actor and humorist. He has been a community and political activist and is an avid artist and gardener. He lives in Ballard with his wife, Deborah Swets, the executive director of CityClub. To reach an editor about this project, contact Jacqui Banaszynski at 206-464-8212 or jbanaszynski@seattletimes.com

A battery of tests conducted every several hours keeps tracks of how Slater's new liver is functioning. He may need to have a stent inserted to dilate the bile duct because the new organ's pipe is narrow. But for the most part, it's so far, so good.

When a group of doctors checked in on Slater, he asked, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how am I doing?" He's been quoting the answer to visitors since: "I'm a 9.5."

"It's going along so well, all the omens and indicators have this happening just right," Swets said. "But I'm a little superstitious. I don't want to say it too loud because things could be complicated on a moment's notice."

The first weeks, even months, after a liver transplant can be touch-and-go. The three-month mark is considered a major hurdle. Nationally, the survival rate after a liver transplant is about 90 percent at one year, Levy said, and somewhat higher for patients who undergo transplants at the UW.

The replacement organ may provide Slater a new lease on life, but it doesn't eradicate his hepatitis C, the blood-borne infection that ravaged his own liver. Chances are, the virus eventually will infect the new liver, but when is unknown.

"There's a dark shadow out there in the distance, but I'm not giving it too much attention," Swets said. "There's too much to be grateful for right now."

If all goes well, Slater could be moved out of intensive care today and released from the hospital in about a week. "I'm so happy it's over," he said, dozing off, the smile lingering on his face.

Julia Sommerfeld: 206-464-2708 or jsommerfeld@seattletimes.com

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