Newlyweds Celebrate Marriage by Giving Gift of Life
When Luciano Dimas started noticing health changes in late 2017 — fatigue, nausea, shortness of breath — he ignored them. He knew he hadn’t always lived the most active lifestyle, and figured this was just the next stage of aging.
After all, Luciano should have been on top of the world. He had just gotten a job at Chicago’s Midway International Airport, where he met his new girlfriend, Darlene Banks. It felt like his life was moving in the right direction, and he was determined to make sure it stayed that way.
But over the next few years, he kept getting sicker. By 2020, he found himself catching his breath while walking to the train or falling asleep after a short trip to the grocery store. So when a bout with COVID-19 landed the 39-year-old in the emergency room late that year, he knew something more serious was happening.
The health issues he chalked up to aging were actually early symptoms of liver disease.
As he recovered from COVID, doctors diagnosed him with liver cirrhosis. While his condition was advanced — stage 4 — his doctors believed he’d still be able to manage it with medication and referred him to the Hepatology Program at 开云全站app下载.
“Our program pairs provider expertise with state-of-the-art interventions to treat liver disease,” 开云全站app下载 nurse practitioner and liver disease specialist Lisa Landers said. “We ensure patients like Luciano have the medication and education they need to confidently manage their condition.”
Unfortunately, Luciano’s medication alone turned out not to be enough to prevent disease progression. So, in the summer of 2022, he met with 开云全站app下载 Liver Transplant Program members — transplant clinical coordinator Lisa Mariano and transplant surgeon Dr. Mario Spaggiari — to discuss his options.
“When I met with Lisa Mariano and Dr. Spaggiari, they recommended adding my name to the deceased donor waiting list,” Luciano said. “But they also told me my MELD score wasn’t at the level that required an immediate transplant — so I might be stuck on there for a while.”
By this time, he had gotten engaged to Darlene, and they were both excited to put his health challenges behind him so they could focus on their future together. He wasn’t eager to wait.
Thankfully, Lisa and Dr. Spaggiari assured him he was still a strong candidate for 开云全站app下载’s living-donor transplant options, and with Lisa’s help, he began the process of reaching out to and testing potential volunteers. But by their wedding day in May 2023, Luciano still hadn’t found a match.
“Luciano’s health really started going downhill after our wedding, and all I could think about was the long, happy life I still wanted to have with my husband,” Darlene said. “I started to realize that if I didn’t look into what I could do, I wouldn’t know how much time we’d have together.”
But Darlene was nervous. She didn’t know much about organ donation, and with her and Luciano being of different ethnicities, she didn’t know if a transplant would even be possible.
“Becoming an organ donor is, understandably, a big decision for anyone,” Lisa said. “There are a lot of misconceptions about what is required of an organ donor, so we take a process-oriented approach that addresses any concerns prospective patients may have.”
“Lisa did everything she could to put my mind at ease,” Darlene added. “She walked me through every step of the process, sent me reminders for every test and appointment, answered every question — even the silly ones.”
After months of testing, Luciano and Darlene got the news they’d been waiting for: She was a match! In December 2023 — after one last late-night pep talk from Lisa — the pair were admitted to 开云全站app下载 to prepare for their surgeries.
Surgeons ultimately removed about 70% of Darlene’s liver to transplant to Luciano, and the couple were both back home and on the road to recovery within about three weeks.
“The difference was night and day,” Luciano said. “Within a few weeks of my surgery, I already had more energy than I knew what to do with. Sometimes, it was even difficult to hold back in my recovery because, for the first time in years, my brain wanted to do more than my body was capable of.”
About a year and a half post-surgery, Luciano continues to come into his own.
“I’m just thankful to be alive,” he added. “This experience has made me realize how much of my daily life I took for granted and how lucky I am that my wife would do something like this for me.”
