Editor’s note: Dan Mawhirter, Great Bend, is seeking a match for a liver transplant. This information was provided by his daughter-in-law, Rachel Mawhirter. She is urging people to help bring awareness to his need for an organ donation.
A liver transplant saved Dan Mawhirter’s life in 2020. Now his family is seeking the public’s help in the search for a second organ donation.
In 2022, 9,528 liver transplants took place in the U.S., but only 54 of those were in the state of Kansas. The formula that determines where donated organs are sent is weighted by population. This means that as a resident of rural Kansas, Dan is at a HUGE disadvantage. The odds of getting him the life-saving transplant he needs are FAR better if we can find a family willing to designate their loved one’s liver and kidneys for Dan. We know this method works, because it happened once before, and we’re calling on our friends and the online community to help make it happen again!
In 2018, Dan was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, anemia, and an enlarged spleen. He made immediate lifestyle changes, modifying his diet, walking every day, and doing what he could to improve his health and his lab results. Things did improve slightly, but in 2020 after a long-awaited back surgery necessitated by over 40 years of crawling in and out of crawl spaces and under people’s sinks as a plumber, Dan experienced complications and recovered slowly.
Later that summer, three veins in the lining of his esophagus broke, which led to vomiting blood. Those were repaired in Salina, but a month later he started retaining fluid in his abdomen. It was at this point that Dan began the extensive evaluation to be added to the liver transplant list.
In December 2020, he made the transplant list and then the wait began. For nearly a year, our family hoped and prayed for a miracle. In November 2021, a friend of Dan and Teresa’s learned of the tragic passing of a 52-year-old male donor that she knew, and reached out to introduce the two families right away. By a miracle, this donor was a match and the liver transplant surgery was performed within a few days.
During that surgery, the doctors discovered that Dan’s biological liver that was removed had several spots of cancer on it, but fortunately, there were no signs of the cancer anywhere else in his body. That organ donation saved Dan’s life in more ways than one! The surgery went well, and Dan began the long road to recovery. He resumed working in his plumbing business after Thanksgiving that year, still struggling with fatigue and sleeplessness.
A few months later, his doctors recommended he have a surgical procedure to repair a hernia, which required him to wean off a medication that prevented a virus known as CMV. Unfortunately, this proved to be a detrimental error on the part of the medical staff, and Dan developed a viral infection while recovering from his hernia repair. Most people can fight off CMV without much issue, but because of Dan’s weakened immune system, this did irreparable damage in more ways than one. Primarily affecting his new liver.
By April 2022, he was collecting fluid in his abdomen again and started having to get fluid drained 1-2 times per week for most of 2022. This condition, known as ascites, became so severe that when the fluid was pulled off, he would get severely dehydrated and weak, which caused muscle cramping and shaking. Dan struggled to sleep because of the cramps, and was in severe pain most of the time. After months of suffering, Dan finally realized he could no longer keep working and was forced into early retirement in September 2022. He sold his half of the company to his business partner and left a 40+ year career just before his 64th birthday.
The doctors continued trying to remedy the fluid collection issue with stents, but those would get blocked over and over. Many procedures were done to unblock them, replace them, etc., but with no lasting results. Meanwhile, his failing health started affecting other organs – primarily his kidneys. In March 2023, he started dialysis three days per week and discovered an infection in one of his knees that had been replaced many years before. Because of these infections, Dan could not be put back on the transplant list, so the doctors removed the artificial knee and placed a spacer there instead. While this limited his mobility, the knee infection did clear up so that Dan could be re-qualified for the transplant list in July of this year.
To this day, Dan continues dialysis along with blood draws and paracentesis (removing fluid from his abdomen) every other week. His life revolves around medical appointments and is severely limited by his health restrictions. Dan has been diagnosed with NASH, which is an irreversible disease caused by inflammation in the liver. There are no approved drugs to stop or reverse NASH, and it will eventually lead to Dan’s death unless he can get the life-saving organ transplant he needs.
The Mawhirter family knows that God can, and believe He WILL, do another miracle in Dan’s life! This long road of medical problems was only made longer when the hernia repair surgery spiraled into more complications. Dan and his wife, Teresa, have tried to stay focused on being there for their kids and grandkids, but it’s hard to keep hoping when you’re suffering.
How to help
• Make sure that you and your loved ones are registered organ donors. It saves SO many lives!
• Share this story, also found on Rachel Mawhirter’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/remawhirter) to make sure other people living in the Midwest are aware of his story.
• If a loved one passes away, you can designate where their organs go before they go out to the nationwide donor list. Dan is blood type O+ and needs a match!
• You can also help our family by covering Dan in prayer in the weeks to follow this post. Pray that it will spread to the right people and that a divine appointment will bring a donor before it’s too late!
THANK YOU for reading this far, and for helping us raise awareness. You are helping us do what we can to save Dan, a beloved husband, father, brother, and Grandpa. We appreciate you sharing this post!
To contact the family about organ donation, call Teresa Mawhirter at 620-786-5929, or contact The University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, 913-588-1227, and tell them your family wants to gift an organ donation to Dan Mawhirter.
