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SALT LAKE CITY — Like clockwork, every Thursday, 75-year-old George Gates is at the hospital. "A positive attitude is really what you have to have," he told Sylvia Eyre, who just got a devastating diagnosis.
"You hear the word, 'cancer,' and you think, 'Well, I don't have much left,'" said Eyre, who has liver cancer and needs a transplant.
It's something Gates knows all about. "I want to be your cheerleader," he told her. Gates had his liver transplant 17 years ago when it was much harder.
"And to see him that many years later, it's just wonderful," Eyre said.
Gates said, "The way you honor your donor is that you do everything you possibly can to make this a successful transplant." A volunteer eased his anxiety back then. So he pays it forward, believing a big part of getting through it is mental. "To be successful: 10 percent medication, 90 percent attitude," he said.
Gates has been a hospital volunteer for 16 years now, and doctors on the transplant team say his work is essential.
"He can show them and direct them to a reality that you can be normal after a transplant, that you can be returned to a full life," said Dr. Richard Gilroy, medical director of the Liver Transplantation Program at Intermountain Medical Center.
Gates offers a prescription of hope — from someone who's been there.
"My dad just celebrated his 90th birthday. I'm thinking, 'Wow, I'm going to be 90, too.' That's what I need: positive," Eyre said.
Still, Gates doesn't see what he does as any big deal. "I get so much more out of being a volunteer than I ever give," he said.
But for patients, he's a lifeline. Eyre said, "If he's gone through it, I can go through it."
"That's my thanks. My thanks is seeing these people get their transplants and become active members of society again," Gates said.
So he'll keep volunteering, showing there's life and joy after a liver transplant.
Last year, doctors at Intermountain Medical Center did 37 liver transplants. Their one-year survival rate is one of the highest in the region at 95 percent.
