“I witnessed my own dying”. Liver Transplant and the Story of the Three Wonders

– The day came when the doctors told my mother: ‘If the liver is not found for a transplant by tomorrow, your son will have to die’. What happens in the mind of a mother who hears such a sentence? All this is unimaginable – recalls Grzegorz Perzyński from the LIVERstrong Transplantation Foundation. And yet a miracle happened, not one, but three. He shared his memories of the most difficult and extreme moments in his life with Medonet. This is his story.

1. On January 26, the National Transplant Day is celebrated. It is a commemoration of the anniversary of the first successful kidney transplant, which took place in 1966 at the XNUMXst Surgical Clinic of the Medical University of Warsaw.
2. 20 years ago, Grzegorz Perzyński had one of the most difficult and extreme experiences in his life
3. A healthy and very active, athletic young man suddenly learns that he has advanced cirrhosis, a process that has been going on for many years. The only solution was an immediate organ transplant
4. 10 years after the operation, Perzyński started in his first triathlon in 2012
5. On June 12, he completed another run – Ironman at the Olympic distance: 1,5 km of swimming, 40 km of cycling and 10 km of running
6. More stories can be found on the Onet homepage

Monika Mikołajska listened to it. The material was originally published in January this year.

I heard that my liver is completely inefficient. There was only one way out

It all started in February 2002. I was 28 years old and lived a very intense life. At home, I was actually a guest. I have worked a lot. I trained no less. Mainly running and swimming. Sometimes a bicycle. Yes for myself. Before that, I gave a lot of my life to football. I was a representative of the Provincial Team, I even participated in consultations of the Broad Polish Team.

The signal that something strange was happening to me was the extremely rapid weight loss. It turned out that I had no control over it. There were also other disturbing symptoms: chronic fatigue, constant drowsiness, low mood, decreased appetite. The doctor I went to said these might be signs of hepatitis B. My surprise came with the blood tests.

It turned out that the liver tests “shot into space”. I was then told outright that I would be in the hospital for the next few weeks. For a person as active as I was then, the mere thought of being bedridden for so long seemed surreal. But I had no choice. I spent almost three weeks there. The results have improved. However, this was only the beginning of a series of dramatic events.

In July, the problems returned, and they did so with redoubled strength. A biopsy showed advanced cirrhosis of the liver. This process has been asymptomatic for many years, possibly already in childhood. Doctors suspected that the changes might have accelerated my busy lifestyle and poor diet. The scenario that the cirrhosis was aggravated by the hepatitis B virus, which I could get infected during root canal treatment, was also taken into account.

1. Symptoms of a sick liver – how to recognize? [WE EXPLAIN]

My condition worsened day by day. I felt dizzy and constantly wanted to sleep. I was so weak that it was difficult for me to cover even a few meters. Finally, I heard from the doctors that they were not able to help me. They said my liver was completely inefficient and the only salvation was an immediate liver transplant. I was reported for an urgent transplant.

An incredible coincidence

Fate turned out to be extremely perverse for me. Less than a year earlier, I was driving my older brother home after my first kidney transplant. When I heard that it was my turn now, I couldn’t understand it. I asked myself, how is it possible that in a year in one family two people – brothers – must have an organ transplant (each other) to be able to continue living. At the time, it was an unimaginable paradox for me, which at first did not allow me to accept the situation.

As consciousness slowly began to recognize that a liver transplant was the only way to survive, I tried to make the situation more rational. Timidly I began to prepare my head for what was about to happen. All to survive. Meanwhile, I was taken from Gdańsk to Warsaw, where the operation was to take place. Time was priceless, so I was “thrown” by a medical plane.

I was seized by a galloping hepatic coma, and I hardly remember that flight. However, I will not forget the signal of the ambulance that took me from the airport to the hospital at ul. Banach. Her howl pierced my head, screaming: here you are in a critical situation, no turning back, you have to face it.

I thought that right after my arrival at the hospital I would find myself at the operating table, after all, I had an urgent transplant. However, this did not happen. The problem was the high viral load (high levels of HBV in my blood) that I was diagnosed with. And that had to be dealt with first. I was taken to the infectious diseases hospital in Wolska Street. It didn’t help much, because when I returned to Banach, things only got worse.

I found myself outside this world. And a miracle happened

It got to the point where I had to start using a wheelchair. Eventually it came so weak that I didn’t even have the strength to pick up the phone and talk to my mother. And my mother, who lives in Malbork, did her best to visit me as often as possible. And when, after a half-day train journey, she reached me at the hospital, she saw her son deeply asleep and only occasionally wake up for a moment, pronounce a few unclear words, and fall asleep again. I knew that my mother was with me, that she was talking to me, but what it was and what my answers were – I only know from her stories. My condition was related to the hepatic coma and unfortunately it was a “slow descent”. The kidneys were starting to fail too. Some hepatic parameters were already immeasurable (their levels were out of scale).

I don’t remember much from my stay in the ICU, where I finally ended up. I found myself outside the world. Simply put: my condition was agonizing. Finally, the day came when the doctors told my mother: if the liver is not found by tomorrow, your son will have to die. What is going on in the mind of a mother who hears this sentence and who has already had the experience of transplanting her first child? What are the chances that by the next day an organ will be found that will save the son’s life, since it has not been found for the last weeks, days and hours? Will a miracle happen? It is all unimaginable. And yet a miracle happened, not one, but three.

The liver was literally at the last possible moment. Had it happened a few hours later, there would have been no more chance. This is the first miracle. The second is that the transplant was successful. My body was exhausted and devastated, the doctors said that I was actually on the “other side”, and yet my body took a fight to take advantage of the last chance to finally win! What happened was a “miraculous resurrection”. It’s just a medical miracle category. I was slowly starting to bounce off the bottom.

I witnessed my own dying

I know that when it comes to the highest stakes – the threat to one’s own existence, man must do everything he can to be as positive as possible to this situation. To be able to honestly tell myself that it will be good that the sun will shine. This is a great work on yourself. Work necessary to survive (at least that was my concept of the “psychic shield” at the time).

In my case, it was downright desperation. Before I fell into the deeper phase of the coma, I was aware that my strength was draining out and that I was slowly leaving this world. I just witnessed my own dying. And I was faced with the final issues. It was clear to me that it all depends on a donor being found. It was clear that I had been waiting for him for a long time and time was running out. What else could I do then? The only option was to switch to optimistic thinking. It was the only thing I had full control over. My attitude depended solely on me. The doctors then told me directly that this mental struggle saved me in a way. And not only that. If it weren’t for my training, my heart might not have been up to the challenge during surgery.

But the drama also took place after the transplant, only in a different version. As consciousness began to come back and I knew I was back alive, questions arose. What’s next? How will I live now? Will I walk normally? Will I be able to work? Will other people have to look after me?

The capital of positive thinking. Thanks to him, I was able to survive

A dozen or so days after the operation, it was time for rehabilitation. The disease has devastated me a lot, I literally have only skin and bones left of me. In order to be able to move at all, I had to rebuild my muscle mass and then get used to the locomotor system again. So the tedious and painful exercises began: lifting the left hand, then the right hand, the left and the right leg. Then I had to learn to raise my torso, learn to get out of bed, and just get on the floor. The matter was made very difficult by left hand hyperesthesia, which occurred during the operation – at the slightest touch, excruciating pain appeared. However, there was no way out, it also had to be survived.

I started walking slowly, taking two or three steps at first. Although it is hard to believe today, it was an incredible effort for me back then. My sports experience, tenacity, will to fight, and my habit of performing repetitive, monotonous movements (as sometimes during karate training or swimming from wall to wall for several dozen minutes) helped me a lot. I knew that it was necessary and that it would pay off in the end. Each step I took brought me closer to my lost physical form, but also strengthened me internally.

At that time, I badly needed mental support, some kind of mental rehabilitation. But I had to take care of that myself. It was 2002, other times, the Internet was not as common then, there were no support groups as it is today. All that was left was my own work, i.e. a continuation of what I had started before the transplant. I mentioned people close to me. I stuffed my head with my music. I imagined myself playing these songs on guitar or piano. My thoughts went back to my sports successes, to the beach in Brzeźno, the pier in Orłowo, etc. I believed that all this was waiting for me, that I would enjoy them again. This is how I built my capital of positive thinking. Thanks to him, I was able to survive this critical time. And that’s how it happened. The third miracle happened.

Although it was unimaginably hard at the beginning, I was coming back to life every day and faster than I could have imagined. I am convinced that it was mainly influenced by enormous effort, mental work, a kind attitude to life, which I was still building and strengthening. Such capital is necessary when things start to go wrong. After what I experienced in connection with a dramatic liver transplant, I believe that everyone should try to create their own personal store of thoughts, experiences and memories that they can reach and refer to in difficult moments.

Of course, it’s not that I will say to myself: from now on, I will be positive, and it does. Changing the ruts of your current thinking is an amazing effort. For some it is easier, for others it is more difficult, it is a very individual matter. It cost me a lot. But it was worth it.

Someone once decided to donate his organ after death. It makes me alive

Almost 20 years have passed since those events. I am aware that I am still a transplant patient and will remain so. My health will never be “full” (many people after transplantation have a certified degree of disability, receive a pension). But I was lucky. I came back to my old life, to many of my fascinations.

10 years after the surgery, in 2012 I started in my first triathlon. Then came other challenges, including last year’s IRONMAN in Gdynia, of which I am an ambassador on behalf of the IRONMAN Poland organization. I finished the competition on 22 km of running, after 3,8 km of swimming and 180 km of a very demanding bicycle route in Kashubia. I did not take the risk of covering the next 20 km at a faster pace. Fortunately, common sense prevailed. Completing the full Ironman distance was not an end in itself. Thanks to this, I was able (and can) promote the wonderful idea of ​​saving lives, which is transplantation (and at the same time promote the wonderful discipline of sports, i.e. triathlon). I am a living example of the enormous success of Polish transplantology, despite the many problems that this field of medicine struggles with.

I also try to act on behalf of transplant and dialysis patients. This is due to the LIVERstrong Transplant Foundation that I founded. The great achievement of the foundation is the shift of our patients from the second group of COVID-19 vaccinations to the priority group. We received signals that thanks to this we saved many lives. This is the highest level of satisfaction and thanks that a social organization can imagine.

This year marks 20 years since the traumatic moments I described here. On this occasion, I launched the “From Transplant to IRONMAN – 20 Years After Dramatic Liver Transplant” campaign. Prof. Waldemar Patkowski from the hospital in Banacha (it was he who “carved out” my second life). We want to present this unique story everywhere.

My case clearly shows how a wonderful field of medicine is transplantology. Hence, it is so important to share the decision to donate organs with family and friends. Not only to make them aware of our choice, but also to make them think about it themselves. It is absolutely not about persuading anyone to take such a step. There is probably no more personal and delicate issue than deciding whether or not to save someone’s life after death. But it is worth considering. One donor can save up to eight people. After all, I am alive only because someone once decided that he would donate his organs after death. What’s more, that he offers them to people he doesn’t know, whom he has never seen and will never see. For me, this is the highest dimension of altruism, social responsibility, simply humanity.

We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to one of the ways to deal with stress – the TRE method. What is it about? How does it release us from stress and trauma? Who is it intended for and who should definitely not use it? About this in the latest episode of our podcast.