Giving the gift of love and life

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT COAST -- Debra Stich’s Christmas present to her husband, Tom,

should be fully grown by now.

On Nov. 2, surgeons at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles

removed part of her liver and used it to replace her husband’s liver,

which had been slowly destroyed by a genetic disease. Because the liver

regenerates itself within six to eight weeks, both have a fully

functioning organ again.

Suffering from a blocked bile duct, which didn’t drain toxins from the

liver, Tom Stich had been told by his doctors that his case ranked low on

the candidate list for liver donations. His situation would deteriorate

gradually and eventually lead to cancer, they said. At that point, he’d

no longer qualify for a transplantation.

Football star Walter Payton also had primary sclerosing cholangitis,

as the disease is known. He was taken off the liver waiting list after

developing cancer and died last year at age 45.

With little hope for a cadaver liver transplant from an accident

victim, doctors told the Stichs about the brand-new “living donor”

transplantation procedure. Although chances that Debra’s liver would

match Tom’s body were less than 10%, her organ turned out to be perfect

for the transplantation.

“I really want to do it,” Debra remembered telling the doctors, adding

that at the time, the hospital had not ever conducted the operation.

By the time the couple went into surgery, which lasted eight hours for

Debra and 12 hours for Tom, doctors had performed four other transplants

with living donors.

The couple’s story had friends and strangers arranging for everything

from blood donations to lawyer appointments to write up a will.

But the operation went well, and although both still feel a soreness

around the large scars on their stomachs, which are shaped like upside

down Ys, Debra said Friday she was almost back to normal.

Tom, who will have to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of

his life and swallows 18 pills a day, said he expects that months will go

by before he completely recovers.

“I feel as if this liver disease part is history,” said Tom, who

worked as a human resources executive before he became ill. “I felt

better in that regard within two days of surgery.”

While he added that his genetic code had come with some flaws, his

luck to find Debra more than made up for it.

Before the couple married in 1993, Debra -- a photographer -- had

pursued Tom for 20 years.

“I kept trying to find somebody else that I liked as much as Tom,” she

said. “But I couldn’t.”

At one point, a frustrated Debra vented to a mutual friend about Tom’s

reluctance to commit to a relationship.

“What does he think I am, chopped liver?” she asked without knowing

that her comment would one day become reality.

The friend told Tom about the conversation and triggered a decision.

“That got me to realize that I was about to lose the best thing I had

going for me,” he said.

Because Tom is still vulnerable to germs, the couple won’t have a

Christmas tree this year and will celebrate the holiday with friends, who

have functioned as caretakers over the last two months.

A small poinsettia plant on a shelf in the living room serves as a

small reminder of the elaborate decorations the couple usually puts up

around the house.

And as far as presents go, Debra said she felt she had done her share

by giving Tom part of herself.

“I told him I’m not getting him anything else,” she said and laughed.

Tom said there was only one present he could give his wife to show her

his gratitude.

“She had to be in my life to give me my life,” he said. “My Christmas

present to Debra is a livelong, ‘I owe you.”’