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Ed Yeates ReportingTwenty years ago Utah surgeons did their first liver transplant. On this anniversary today, survivors - including the man who got that first one - gathered for a special reunion.
74-year-old Lyle Thacker is still going strong. Twenty years ago he was dying and his only hope was a liver transplant.
Lyle Thacker, Transplant Recipient: "We really didn't know because there was no life expectancy at that time that I was aware of."
Liver transplants, then were considered experimental. Insurance companies would not pay the bill.
Terry Box, M.D., LDS Hospital Liver Transplant Program: "We were not only under fire from insurance companies, but sometimes from people within our own institution who thought what we were doing was inappropriate."
Dr. Terry Box, who heads up the transplant program, is himself a recipient of a new liver.
Dr. Box: "And here I am today, working both sides of the street."
Lyle Thacker was the pioneer. Now he's among many, like Dr. Box, all part of a growing local inventory which tallies 560 liver transplants.
Not all made it. But twenty years later, the survival rate ranks 90 plus percent in a procedure no longer considered experimental.
Brian Holcomb is among some of the younger adults.
Brian Holcomb, Transplant Recipient: "And all the hopes and dreams for my life, that transplant is the embodiment of them. Without that I would have died a year and a half ago."
Lyle Thacker has become good friends with his donor family. Their son donated that first liver. Other donor families have become part of this 20 year anniversary as well.
Lucille Jensen, Mother of Deceased Donor: "For me and my family, it's been an extraordinary opportunity to have something tangible come out of a loss."
Lyle Thacker drove 80 miles per hour to get to Salt Lake for that transplant 20 years ago. Life is relaxed and good now., and it's not over yet.
Lyle Thacker: "I'm looking forward to many more years."
Dr. LeGrand Belnap reminded those at today's reunion that one organ donor can now save the lives of nine people.
