Anchorage

Eagle River man receives rare living-donor liver transplant from his nephew

Organ donations from living donors are rare: Only about 5% of transplants fall into this category.

Eagle River resident Tim Seafler, 54, was on the receiving end of one of those rare transplants this spring thanks to an organ donation from his 23-year-old nephew — a gift that the Alaskan’s lead surgeon says likely saved Seafler’s life.

Seafler, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force, was diagnosed 10 years ago with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a progressive condition that led to his liver failing in March 2020.

Despite how sick he had become, Seafler said that based on a complicated scoring system that prioritizes the very sickest patients for the liver transplant waiting list, his chances of receiving a deceased-donor organ were slim. Without his nephew’s donation, Seafler would likely have continued to get even sicker for years before qualifying for a deceased-donor transplant. And living in Alaska made it hard for Seafler to be a last-minute standby candidate for a donor organ too.

In a recent interview, Seafler described the way his illness had, for years, made him feel like he was living in a fog.

“At first you don’t notice it, because it starts slowly taking away your energy,” he said. “It’s like, you don’t know how sick you are until you’re better.”

“When your liver is not working well, a lot of the toxin buildup starts to affect your cognitive abilities and how bright and sharp you are, and (Tim) noticed this on a pretty daily basis,” said Dr. Mark Sturdevant, the lead surgeon who oversaw both men’s surgeries, in an interview.

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The Seattle-based UW Medicine living donor program serves a large geographic area, including most of the Pacific Northwest, plus Alaska and Hawaii. Many patients end up waiting on the deceased-donor transplant list for years because their score is not high enough to get a good organ offer, which is why the living-donor program is so important, Sturdevant said.

“The 10 patients that we have done (living-donor transplants for) here since August of 2020, essentially only one of them probably would have received a transplant within a year” based on their score, Sturdevant said.

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Seafler is the program’s first Alaskan to receive a living-donor transplant.

His nephew, Doug Post, lives in Arlington, Virginia, where he works as a data scientist researcher at Georgetown University. Post learned about UW Medicine’s living donor program from his mom — Seafler’s sister — and after weeks of research and doctor appointments, he underwent surgery on March 4 to have a lobe of liver transplanted.

Post said it was difficult to watch his uncle’s illness progress over the years, and that seeing the effects of the illness spurred his decision to become a donor.

His uncle “has always been a witty, funny guy,” Post said. But as Seafler got sicker, “you could tell it was hard to carry a conversation. He would get lost and forget what he’s talking about. He was just constantly groggy.”

All that changed almost immediately after Seafler woke up from surgery.

“As soon as I woke up, everything seemed to be clearer and just much more focused,” Seafler said. “I looked out at the stadium at the University of Washington without my glasses on, and it still seemed clearer. And then when people talked to me, I could grasp what they’re saying much quicker. I could tell the difference right away.”

Post says he noticed the changes in his uncle almost immediately too.

“It was really like a switch had been flipped,” Post said. “It was this huge change that happened immediately. And that was awesome to see.”

Post said he carefully assessed the risks and benefits of the surgery with his doctors before deciding to donate.

A donor’s risk of dying during the type of surgery Post underwent is about 1 in 500 to 600. Post donated the right lobe of his liver, which is associated with a slightly higher risk than surgeries involving the smaller left lobe, Sturdevant said.

There’s a 20% to 30% chance of a minor complication, and about a 1% chance of a more serious one, Sturdevant said. Most healthy, young donors recover well. Healthy livers are able to regenerate quickly.

Despite post-operative complications Post experienced that required a second surgery and longer recovery time, he’s still glad he made the decision he did.

Seafler said that he hadn’t been planning to ask anyone to donate a liver, but he’ll be forever thankful to his nephew.

“I told him thanks, but I don’t know how you can say thanks for something like that,” he said.

“Like, what you can do besides just recognize the person that did it. I don’t have a million dollars or anything, but I’ll make sure he knows I appreciate it,” he said.

Annie Berman

Annie Berman is a reporter covering health care, education and general assignments for the Anchorage Daily News. She previously reported for Mission Local and KQED in San Francisco before joining ADN in 2020. Contact her at aberman@adn.com.

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