Transplant Survivor’s Harrowing Story Ends With A Message Of Hope

By Nancy K. Crevier

“I hope I can give people [who are ill] the hope they need. I hope to give people inspiration and strength.” These are the words of Elizabeth Alberico. Many who know this vibrant woman today are unaware that for many years she suffered debilitating pain and inconvenience caused by a liver condition known as primary biliary cirrhosis. She rarely speaks of it, but she feels the time has come to share her story of hope and offer her support to others struggling with the trials of liver disease.

When Elizabeth Alberico was admitted to Yale New Haven Hospital in November of 1995, she did not know that the primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) she suffered from had left her with only two weeks to live.

PBC is a disease of the liver that destroys the bile ducts, preventing bile from leaving the liver. Bile, a substance in the body that helps digest fats, then builds up, damaging the liver. Eventually, the liver stops functioning and even with treatment, can fail.

Mrs Alberico’s liver had failed. She was in need of a liver transplant.

With an infection raging in her system, however, she was taken off the waiting list. The days ticked by as she and her family waited for the infection to clear. She was number 41 on the list of patients awaiting a liver. Doctors at Yale New Haven told her family she had four days to live. Then the infection cleared and she moved to the number one position. But being number one did not guarantee that a suitable liver would be available before her time was up.

Even with tubes pulling four liters of fluids and toxic waste from her body every day and oxygen being pumped into her, Mrs Alberico remained hopeful and positive. When doctors arrived at her bedside to tell her they had found a match, it was not just Mrs Alberico and her family who broke down in tears of happiness. The doctors cried, too.

Ten years later, Mrs Alberico is active in golfing and activities at the Walnut Tree Hill community where she lives with her husband, Cosmo — and the liver she fondly refers to as “Bert.”

“The liver came from a 40-year-old man in Boston named Bert,” she says, gently patting her side. “He died in a motorcycle accident. He is my guardian angel. I keep him in my prayers every day.”

It is the power of prayer and the support of her family that Mrs Alberico says carried her through the surgery and recovery. Faith and family had helped her make it through the long years prior to the transplant, as well, she says. The path to Yale New Haven had been long, as doctor after doctor in a seven-year span could not diagnose her symptoms that began in 1988.

Initial symptoms of jaundice led doctors to consider lupus and chronic hepatitis. She was tested for Lyme disease and had blood work over and over again as incapacitating symptoms piled up. “I was very, very tired,” she recalls. The worst, though, she says, was the itching. “I got a terrible, deep-down itch. I would wake up scratching and scratching, the bed full of blood. It was awful,” she says. Lesions appeared on her body that left her feeling as though she was covered in crawling ants.

One doctor early on diagnosed her with PBC, but two days after her visit he died without having passed on the results of her tests to anyone except her. Because PBC was a disease recognized by few doctors, other doctors who accessed her information at that time had no idea what the disease was, how to treat it, or what to do with the information. Mrs Alberico spent seven more years seeking an answer.

Through it all, though, she kept her sense of humor and her good attitude toward life. “Attitude is 51 percent of how well a person deals with things like this,” says Mrs Alberico. “You have to take a problem and deal with it. Take life as it comes.”

It was a doctor in Westchester who finally diagnosed her with PBC in early 1995. “Dr Lapatkin sent me to Yale New Haven Hospital for more tests.”

She was told that she would need a liver transplant. “In one way, I was happy to know what was wrong with me. I was shocked, though. They told me my liver was worse than Swiss cheese.”

The disease continued to progress over the next several months and when her body began to pour out toxic wastes she entered Yale New Haven, hoping that a liver match would be found. “Everything has to work,” she says. “The tissue, the blood work, all has to match perfectly.” It was a trying time for Mrs Alberico and her family. She counts herself fortunate that her family stood beside her through it all.

“Without your family, you can’t do it. I have eleven grandchildren and four wonderful children. My husband Cosmo is one in a million. They were my strength. They were there for me every minute.”

She knew there was a danger of not surviving the surgery or of her body rejecting the liver, but she also knew she had the prayers of her family and friends as she underwent the surgery. “I totally believe in the power of prayer,” she says.

When she awoke from surgery, her family was at her side. Bert’s liver was performing its job inside of her body.

She wrote a letter of thanks to Bert’s survivors, even though it took her over a week of crying and rewriting. “It was very difficult. Their loss was my gain.”

What she read in the letter she received back from the donor’s family sent shivers down her spine. Bert’s favorite foods were peanut butter and chocolate.

“When I woke up from surgery, I asked for peanut butter and chocolate. That’s what I was hungry for. I never ate peanut butter or chocolate before. I didn’t like them.”

Like so many other aspects of her life, she simply accepts it.

Surviving liver transplant surgery did not mean life was back on easy street for Mrs Alberico. “The first year is the most likely for rejection, because of infections and the immune system being so weak,” she explains. She was on numerous drugs to prevent rejection, as well as extremely high doses of steroids.

The next two years were a continued trial for Mrs Alberico. She is blind in one eye, the result of drug interactions, she believes. “Because of the steroids, my bones became very brittle and I broke just about every bone in my body. I broke my back, my fingers, ankles, toes, and wrist. The back was the worst. Every time I went for a checkup for those two years, it was in a wheelchair or on crutches.”

Her family was there for her all the way she says, emphasizing again her belief that supportive family and friends are a crucial part of recovery.

Not every person who undergoes transplant surgery does as well as Mrs Alberico. Organ rejection is not uncommon. There is another rejection that bothered Mrs Alberico far more than her fear of organ rejection, though. It was the rejection she saw other transplant patients suffer at the hands of their friends and family.

She remembers other transplant patients she met in the hospital who did not thrive, who did not have family at their side. “They did not do well. I went home only four days after surgery. I visited some of [the other patients] before I went home, tried to cheer them up. They had nobody. Their families had abandoned them.”

As time passed, she was able to reduce the amount of steroids she took, as well as the number of rejection drugs. “Don’t ever stop taking your rejection meds, though,” she advises anyone who has undergone liver transplant surgery. Mrs Alberico tried that last fall, hoping that without them she would sleep better. She ended up in the hospital for three days. “I thought after ten years, maybe I didn’t need them anymore.” It was a painful lesson she does not plan to repeat. “I’m on only two rejection pills a day now, a blood pressure pill, a vitamin, and a calcium pill. A lot of liver transplant patients are on 80 to 120 pills a day, so I am very lucky.”

She credits her genetic heritage for a part in her remarkable recovery. “I come from a very strong family. And attitude is also so much of it,” she says. “I never asked, ‘Why me?’ And I never have found out why I got PBC. I don’t know to this day.”

What she does know is that everyone has a purpose in life. It may be that her rocky road in life was the path to her purpose. She has survived years beyond other liver transplant patients. She does not announce her own trials, but is always willing to talk to others diagnosed with liver disease and encourages anyone who needs to talk to call her at 426-4139.

She has her mantras that she passes on to those she meets. “You take life one day at a time and live it to the fullest. Love everyone. You’re only walking through life.”

Her life is full, ten years after a surgery that many do not survive. “I golf, I play mahjong, I play cards once a week and we entertain. We have beautiful friends and beautiful family. They are the loves of my life. With all I’ve been through, I’m happy.”