Tom Starr, Founder and CEO of Miracles for Life Celebrates his Second Liver Transplant
 “I’ve known Tom Starr for over a quarter of a century and in all that time I’ve never ceased to be amazed at his will to live and the good that he has created out of a personal negative. His story is an inspiration to everyone. Read it and I think you will agree.”
In 1988, Tom Starr was given six months to live. 180 days. Each day his health would get worse, and he was already feeling worse than anyone should feel. The countdown clock was ticking.
Doctors said that if he didn’t get a liver transplant he was going to be dead. Soon.
In June 1988, he had been admitted to the hospital near his home in Los Angeles because the disease eating at his liver had made it necessary for an emergency blood transfusion. While he was in the hospital, a donor had been identified. Tom was prepared for surgery. The helicopter left to retrieve Tom’s donated liver, but had to be recalled when the donor’s heart stopped.
Unbelievably, the countdown clock stopped later that night when another donor was found in St. Louis. With barely any time to spare, the transplant took place on June 25, 1988. A stranger had given Tom the ultimate gift, the “gift of life”.
Tom lived. Approximately seventeen others die each day waiting. Today more than 90,000 people are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. What do you do with such a gift? For Tom, it has become a never-ending campaign to raise awareness for the benefits of life-saving organ transplants.
After moving to Cincinnati in 1990, Tom, his wife Anne and his brother Larry, Head Athletic Trainer for the Cincinnati Reds, co-founded Miracles for Life to promote organ transplantation as one of the world’s greatest medical achievements.
Tom has helped to raise millions of dollars for organ donation causes. He has appeared on numerous radio and TV talk shows reminding everyone that they can be a hero by registering as an organ or tissue donor.
Unfortunately for Tom, the countdown to death started ticking again. Tom’s liver was being killed by the same disease that required the first transplant in 1988. He was back on the waiting list.
The pain and fatigue were constant reminders that time was running out. Days, weeks, months and years went by waiting for that faithful call for that miracle, that second chance to continue to live and help others.
On May 22, 2006, Tom got the call. Another donor had been found. Another miracle. Another chance at life. The procedure was not easy. The surgeons may have made history by performing a liver transplant 18 years after the first liver transplant. The transplant team at the University of Cincinnati led by Dr. Steve Woodle and Dr. Steve Rudich, however, were up to the task! Tom was home nine days after the transplant! A miracle of modern medicine.
Tom does not know the identity of either of his donors. He hopes to someday meet their families and show them what their loved ones’ final unselfish act has accomplished. He continues his effort to raise awareness for organ donation in their honor.
When asked about how he manages all his volunteer efforts, Tom said: “How can I not? Organ donation gave me life.”
Please register to be an organ donor. |
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