ALPINE — Four times before, former BYU and NFL great Todd Christensen had been told by doctors a new liver awaited him. Each of the four times, something nixed the transplant in the final days or the final hours.

This week, Christensen faced his fifth real opportunity to receive a liver. Doctors had it inside him, hoping to complete the transplant work, and that's when his family received the news they hoped to never hear.

"He's not doing too great and he might "code" is the word I think we heard over the phone," recalled son Toby Christensen of the call that came in from a nurse, just as a doctor was telling the family the liver took and things were looking promising.

The younger Christensen broke the family's silence in a Thursday afternoon interview with KSL in the family's home.

"It wasn't long after that that he passed," Toby Christensen said. "They tried CPR for a while, and we lost him."

Todd Christensen had come close on so many previous occasions to receiving what his family believed would have been a life-sustaining transplant.

On two previous occasions, the former All-Pro tight end was told to begin his 24-hour fast before his transplant, only to learn later that the liver had been given to someone else.

Related Stories:

BYU football legend Todd Christensen passes away

Former BYU football great and broadcaster Todd Christensen passed away Wednesday morning due to complications from surgery, according to an email from the BYU sports department. He was 57 years old.

Two other times, health concerns nixed a transplant days before it was supposed to happen.

Christensen passed early Wednesday — Toby's birthday. "He was just always helping other people "The day before I had so many people saying what an incredible birthday present this is going to be for you - ‘you're dad finally gets a liver' - because it's something that's been so close to us for so long," Toby said.

His dad — a mountain of a man known for his physical prowess — had wasted away in recent months, plummeting from 240 pounds to 170 pounds.

"I wanted my dad back the way he was," Toby said. "The way everybody knew him. So yeah, we were super excited. We were super excited to see him get a liver."

Instead, a day and a half after Christensen's sudden passing, the family Thursday was compiling memorabilia from his NFL career to show at his viewing.

Christensen's family hopes he will be remembered as something more than a BYU legend, more than a NFL great, more than a broadcaster.

Toby said he hoped his dad would be remembered as somebody who treated every person as his equal, and somebody who would give anything he had to help someone else.

"He was just always helping other people, and so I hope people see that side of him — the generous side, the side that was always giving of his time," he said.

The family said it had finalized plans for two viewings and a funeral — all of which are open to the public.

The viewings have been scheduled Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Alpine North LDS Stake Center Chapel in Alpine, at 1125 East Alpine Boulevard.

The funeral is scheduled at the same location at 1:00 p.m. Saturday.

Related topics