Media Contact: Sandra Van
Telephone: 1-800-396-1002 (Please do not publish this phone number in stories) E-mail: [email protected]
PRIMARY SCLEROSING CHOLANGITIS:
In the aftermath of this week's announcement that NFL hero Walter Payton is in need of a liver transplant due to Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), much attention has been focused on this disease. Wendell Sawyer, age 43, knows about PSC first-hand. Sunday, Feb. 7, 1999, marked the 3rd anniversary of his liver transplant. Sawyer, a former USC football player, is available to discuss liver transplants and the disorder from the perspective of a PSC survivor. His physician, John Vierling, M.D., is also available. Dr. Vierling is Medical Director of Liver Transplantation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and National Chair, Board of Directors, American Liver Foundation.
MEDICAL EXPERT AND PSC SURVIVOR AVAILABLE TO DISCUSS LIVER TRANSPLANTS AND PRIMARY SCLEROSING CHOLANGITIS
LOS ANGELES (February 5, 1999) -- Sunday, Feb. 7, is a special day for Wendell Sawyer, 43, Los Angeles. This date marks the third anniversary of his liver transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Sawyer, a real estate broker and general contractor, is a former USC football player and needed the transplant after being diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). PSC is a disorder that causes narrowing and obstruction of the bile ducts, resulting in cirrhosis and liver failure.
According to Sawyer's physician, John Vierling, M.D., Director of Liver Transplantation at Cedars-Sinai, and National Chair, Board of Directors, of the American Liver Foundation, the exact cause of PSC is unknown, but genetic and immunologic factors appear to play a role.Once considered rare, recent studies indicate that the disorder may be more common than was previously believed.
More prevalent in men than women, PSC usually strikes in the prime of life -- the 30s, 40s and 50s. Many people have few or no symptoms. Such was the case with Sawyer. Initially, he, like most people in America had no idea what PSC was, what caused it or how it could be treated. In fact, he says, his first response when learning of the diagnosis was to ask Dr. Vierling to spell it out for him so he could go to the library and do his own research.
As the disease progressed, he began to experience excessive night sweating. According to Dr. Vierling, this sweating was due to an infection caused by a progressive blockage of Sawyer's biliary tract. In an effort to ascertain the extensiveness of the bile duct narrowing that was causing the blockage, an endoscopic retrograde cholangiogram was scheduled.
The results showed that the duct narrowing was so severe that it was necessary to insert a drainage stent through a tube in Sawyer's side. After a 23-day-stay in the hospital, he returned home with the tube still in place to prevent additional blockages. Although the tube wasn't painful, it had to be kept clean and dry, a task that Sawyer could not have accomplished on his own. "My mother took care of me," he says. "I couldn't take baths, go swimming or do any of the water sports I loved."
Soon, however, Sawyer began noticing changes; he was constantly fatigued, became progressively jaundiced, developed shingles, became impotent and began losing weight at an alarming rate. "I never lost my appetite," he says. "I just lost a lot of weight." So much so that people began to speculate. "They assumed I was on drugs, that I had hepatitis, or that I was HIV positive," he says.
Sawyer's condition worsened and a liver biopsy was done, indicating that he was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver due to the long-standing PSC. "Many people hear the word 'cirrhosis' and assume that it is automatically alcohol-related," says Vierling. "Not so. The truth is that cirrhosis can be caused by many different diseases, including PSC."
Nine days after his biopsy, Sawyer was evaluated for liver transplantation. Because the cirrhosis and bile duct narrowing were so severe, he was placed on the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) national list as a candidate for a donor liver. "I didn't want a transplant," he says. "I thought I could beat it (the PSC) on my own and I tried all kinds of holistic approaches. I was just scared to death, thinking about receiving someone else's liver. I thought it would change me, somehow."
When the telephone call came at 2 o'clock one morning asking him to go to Cedars-Sinai because a liver was available, Sawyer had mixed feelings. He knew he needed the liver, but he still felt overwhelmed with fear and apprehension. While being prepped, however, tests on the liver showed that it was unsuitable, so he went home. "Actually, it was kind of a relief not to get the liver at that time," he says. "I was still so scared about it."
But then, his condition began to deteriorate and he had difficulty remembering things. When his beeper went off as he was driving along the Santa Monica freeway on Feb. 7, 1996, the sixth anniversary of his brother's death, Sawyer was ready for the transplant. "I didn't want anyone to die," he says. "But I was ready to receive a new liver."
The transplant was successful and today, apart from an abdominal scar, Sawyer shows little effects from his experience. "I can do anything today that I did before I got sick," he says. "I roller skate, jog regularly, jet ski, ride my motorcycles." He pauses, then adds. "But it was about a year-and-a-half before I could do sit-ups right!"
For information on liver donation, the American Liver Foundation has a toll-free hotline, 1-800-GO-LIVER (465-4837). Information is also available on their website at www.liverfoundation.org.
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For media information and to arrange an interview, please call 1-800-396-1002. (Thank you for not publishing this telephone number in stories.)
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