Jeff’s Easter miracle: Jim Thorpe man celebrates life on anniversary of liver transplant

For millions of people around the world, Easter is the promise of life in heaven.

For Jeff Kalage of Jim Thorpe, he’s happy to get a second chance at the one he has here on earth.

One year ago, on Easter Sunday, Kalage received a liver transplant soon after doctors had told his family he would be on life support if an organ donor could not be found by the next day.

Against all odds — part 1

Kalage, who had already survived lymphoma cancer 12 years ago, began to experience flulike symptoms early last April. The 68-year-old retired New York City detective felt nauseated and weak. His health deteriorated rapidly and in just hours, he couldn’t walk. His wife, Lori, took him to St. Luke’s Miners Campus, where doctors diagnosed his condition as hepatitis A, a bacterial infection that attacks the liver.

Although no cause was determined, the disease can happen from eating contaminated food. The local board of health was put on alert, but no other cases were reported.

“Dr. (Michael) Sabol told me that what I had was treatable with antibiotics and bed rest,” explained Kalage, “and that only 1 percent of 250,000 people with this type of hepatitis do not respond to the medicine and end up with liver failure.”

Despite the overwhelming odds in his favor, his liver function worsened. At midnight in mid-April, Kalage was rushed to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

“I suddenly realized the seriousness of all this,” he said. “I was certainly surprised, but I wasn’t scared.”

Against all odds — part 2

Two days after his name was placed on the liver donor list, Kalage’s condition continued to deteriorate, and further complicated by his kidneys that had lost 90 percent of their function, requiring that he get dialysis treatment, a purification procedure that removes harmful toxins.

“My name was moved to the top of the liver transplant list,” he said. “On Saturday morning, the day before Easter, my family and I were told that if I didn’t get a new liver by Monday, I would be put on life support.”

Not only would getting a donor that matched his criteria be difficult in that brief time period, the statistical odds were not favorable. Of the livers donated, only a small percentage can actually be used successfully.

With a transplant team of doctors and nurses on emergency alert, Kalage received notice that a donor match was coming from a death in Tennessee.

A visit from mom

So on Easter Sunday morning, the medical team, headed by Dr. Abraham Shaked, performed nine hours of liver transplant surgery.

“Just after the anesthesia was put into me, I had this vision of my mother who passed away 12 years ago,” Kalage said. “I saw her sitting in the operating room in her usual blue housecoat doing her usual knitting. Then she looked up and spoke to me in Greek.

“Don’t be worried, son,” she told me. “It’s not your time yet.”

The road to recovery

Although the transplant was successful, several concerns were still significant to Kalage’s recovery. He had to continue dialysis for a month to get his kidney function up to 40 percent, and from that time on, they could heal on their own.

At the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia, he had to get strong enough to learn how to walk again. In addition, his doctors had administered medicine to guard against his body’s rejection of his new liver.

“I was told that if my body rejected the liver, it would happen within a year. So I can say I’m in the clear now. Easter to Easter is my new liver’s first year anniversary.”

Every day is Thanksgiving

Since his retirement from the New York Police Department, Kalage has worked for St. Luke’s Miners Campus in Coaldale transporting patients to and from their homes.

“Since I was a teenager, I have always been someone who likes to help other people. Of course, now I feel so appreciative and so grateful to so many people for my second chance at life. My daughter, Ashley Craigie and my son, Michael and I volunteer to work for the Gift of Life donor program.”

Not a day goes by now that Kalage does not feel gratitude and appreciation for his second chance at life.

“I have written to my donor’s family in Tennessee to thank them in such a time when they were grieving their loss,” he said. “Of course, I am grateful for Dr. Sabol; and all the nurses who attended to me at Miners Hospital and the medical team at UPenn, and the staff at CareNow in Jim Thorpe and all my co-workers at St. Luke’s in Coaldale.

“I thank God for my wife, Lori, who nursed me back to health for the first four months after my surgery.”

It goes without saying, too, that he’s most appreciative of his mother saying her words of comfort to him just minutes before his nine hours of surgery.

In this past year, he has gained so much insight from his struggle and survival.

“Everything happens for a reason. My situation humbled me and gave me a renewed appreciation of life. You need to stay positive and believe that everything will turn out all right.”

Kalage is fully aware that so many pieces had to fall into place to give him his second chance.

“Even if something should happen to me tomorrow,” he said, “I already got an extra year to live, so I have nothing to complain about.”