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MURRAY — Hal McNeil was initially hesitant to accept a liver transplant after only waiting on the transplant list for six months.
The 64-year-old Hurricane man believed at the time that others were in more need, but surgeons who performed the procedure told him it had been urgent. He is grateful now to be alive and there for his wife, children and grandchildren.
McNeil's surgery was one of 414 performed by the Intermountain Health transplant program in a record-breaking year for adult transplants in 2023.
The people crucial to that success were present at a media event Monday to celebrate the organ transplant program's status as one of the most successful in the country. In 2023, the Intermountain Health transplant program based at the Intermountain Health Center in Murray completed the transplants of 182 livers, 198 kidneys and 30 hearts in addition to four kidney/pancreas transplants — the program's work last year saved the lives of hundreds of Utahns and patients from surrounding states.
McNeil, who entered into the program's care after doctors discovered tumors on his liver, is just one of many whose lives were saved by the talented men and women behind the Intermountain Health transplant program in 2023.
Back in 2017, McNeil was diagnosed with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and had his gallbladder removed; however, the surgeon who removed McNeil's gallbladder discovered two tumors located on his liver.
McNeil spent the next five years being regularly monitored by his hepatologist, but unfortunately, in January of 2023, an additional growth was discovered on McNeil's liver, which moved him up on the transplant list for a new liver. To McNeil's surprise, he received a call just six months later in July that s a liver was just made available for him in Alaska.
"Initially, I said 'No,'" said McNeil, recounting the experience of being told that there was a liver available to him when he had only been on the list for about six months at that point. He remembers not feeling ready. McNeil explained tearfully that his wife and kids convinced him to go through with the procedure.
When asked why he, at first, felt like he wasn't ready to accept the liver transplant, McNeil explained that although his liver was damaged and failing, he didn't experience very much pain. This gave him the impression that he could wait; he thought about all the other people who were also waiting for a liver transplant and felt apprehensive about accepting the transplant because he'd only been waiting for his transplant for six months — a relatively short amount of time to wait for someone on the transplant list.
"The liver wasn't healthy, but it wasn't causing physical pain so I wasn't feeling bad," said McNeil, explaining his initial apprehension to receiving his transplant so soon, thinking of the other 880 people who are currently waiting on the transplant list. "I can wait; there's other people who've been on the list for months, years. They need this."
But, it was a storm of the right factors, including the fact that McNeil has a Type B positive blood type, a rarer blood type, that led to McNeil receiving his transplant so quickly. Because the donor of the liver being donated to McNeil also had the same blood type, the liver was deemed to be a perfect match for McNeil. After McNeil accepted the liver, a medical jet with two of McNeil's surgeons aboard flew to Alaska to pick up the donated organ and deliver it to Utah in time for his surgery — which ended up being a resounding success.
McNeil explained that the surgeons later told him after the transplant that the liver taken out of him was in urgent need of being removed. He feels a tremendous amount of gratitude for the Intermountain Health Transplant Program and its staff for renewing his lease on life.
"We're the fifth-most aggressive program in the country in terms of liver transplantation," said Dr. Jean Botha, a transplant surgeon with Intermountain Health and the medical director of Intermountain Health's abdominal transplant program. "What's important is that we're not just putting in organs and hoping for the best — we know which organs will work best for our patients."
Patients in the Intermountain Health Transplant Program's care are known for their extremely high survivability rate, even years after surgery. Dr. Rami Alharethi, medical director of the heart transplant and artificial heart program at Intermountain Medical Center, expressed great excitement to be part of a heart transplant program where the survival rate for patients three years post-heart transplant is 100% — a survival rate that is considered one of the best in the country.
"It comes down to the people who are involved in the program," Botha said when asked what makes the Intermountain Health transplant program stand out. "I'm clearly surrounded by people who are dedicated and passionate about what they do — it's an incredible feeling that exists here."
