Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Chris Krukowski received a life-saving liver transplant, allowing him to again have energy to get through the day.
- Inspired by the care he received, his wife joined Intermountain Health's transplant team.
- Intermountain's program has increased liver transplants by 385% over the last seven years.
MURRAY — Chris Krukowski waited on the liver transplant list for two years. Near the end of that time, he was spending most of his life napping, unable to do much for his family.
Back then, he would wake up to take their kids to school, then go back to sleep until it was time to pick them up. Now, he can count on one hand the number of naps he's had since his transplant in late 2023.
His wife, Holly Krukowski, said he was admitted to the hospital for 11 days, at one point receiving nine blood transfusions. She said they got six calls that a liver was available and later learned, each time, that it wouldn't work out because of imperfections in the liver or other reasons, like the surgeon wasn't satisfied it would work.
But the seventh call was a perfect match.
Krukowski said that with his blood type and need for a full, large liver, there were some limiting factors. After the right organ was found, he said his energy returned the day after the transplant.
"Everything my doctor said came true, and everybody here helped make it possible," he said.
Holly Krukowski said when her husband was first listed for a liver transplant, she was impressed with Intermountain Health's transplant team. She said they could feel authentic empathy and love from the caregivers.
"It was just making a really scary situation a little bit easier, with how well they took care of him," she said.
She said she wanted to make that difference in someone else's life, and so she applied to join the team and is now the clinic manager. She said it is inspiring to be part of the team that was able to help her husband, and she comes into work to give others that same experience.
"I try to make sure that people are being seen," she said.
Chris Krukowski said he can tell his wife is connected to the transplant patients.
"She sees me in other patients, and it affects her. And so, I think she gives everybody that same attention," he said.
Intermountain Health recently celebrated its organ donation program, including medical staff and patients, as part of Donate Life Month in April. In the last six years, the Intermountain Transplant Program increased liver transplants by 385%, making it the third-fastest growing program in the country while maintaining outcomes above the national average.
"The success of Intermountain Health's transplant program is due to all the passionate caregivers in the OR and in the clinic. ... But it's also due to the very gracious donors and their families, for saying yes to organ donation," said Dr. Jean Botha, medical director of Intermountain Health's abdominal transplant program.
Chris Krukowski expressed gratitude for organ donors and thanked anyone who is even considering organ donation. He said someone checked a box letting him continue to be a father and husband.
"I think it's a noble thing that anybody can do, and it's easy," he said.
Holly Krukowski added that the person who chose to donate her husband's liver did not just save him, but her and their two kids as well.
Chis Krukowski has had Crohn's disease and said a doctor had told him years earlier that he would likely need a liver transplant. He encouraged people to not neglect their health care, saying if he had taken care of himself and his Crohn's disease better in his teenage and young adult years, things could have been different.
"Never give up. No. You you just keep going. And, you know, maybe things don't work out the way you want them to, but whatever you can do is better than nothing," Chris Krukowski said.
