‘I shouldn’t be here’: Father shares his story after rare second liver transplant

By Spencer Tracy

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    WINTER GARDEN, Florida (WESH) — This Father’s Day means more than just cards and cookouts for one Central Florida dad. It marks a miracle.

Andrew Wagner is enjoying his family time, just months after surviving what doctors say is a rare and complex medical journey — a second liver transplant.

“You don’t look back and remember a lot of Father’s Day, but I definitely know that I will look back and remember this Father’s Day because all of my family is with me,” Wagner said.

Fifteen years ago, Wagner received a life-saving liver transplant. A relatively common autoimmune disease known as primary sclerosing cholangitis had damaged the bile ducts in his liver, causing it to fail.

“So last year, leading up to that transplant was completely different than how we are doing currently. Now we are doing fabulous, ” Nicole Wagner, Andrew’s wife, said.

After six weeks in a medically induced coma, Wagner received his new liver at a Florida hospital in October 2010. However, in 2022, a routine abdominal and chest CT scan revealed a new cause for concern: Stage 1 lung cancer.

A year after surgeons in Florida removed his cancerous lung nodule and declared him cancer-free, Wagner began experiencing a buildup of fluid around his lungs. To his surprise, the symptom wasn’t his cancer returning – his transplanted liver was starting to fail.

“When you get cancer after a transplant, you’re really between a rock and a hard place,” Dr. Satish Nadig, a transplant surgeon and director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center, said.

Doctors say the chances of surviving a second transplant are slim, and finding a match isn’t easy.

In the spring of 2024, Mrs. Wagner reached out to transplant centers across the country, hoping that someone would agree to a second transplant. However, because Wagner had not been cancer-free for three to five years, they were told repeatedly that another transplant wasn’t an option.

Wagner found the perfect match at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. There, the family received the “yes” they had been searching for.

“We are now doing liver transplants for colorectal cancer, one of the few programs in the country doing that, and I think that we just have to rethink what we think we know about the indications for transplant,” Nadig said.

Five months after surgery, Wagner’s new liver is functioning well, and he remains cancer-free.

Since returning home to Winter Garden, he has been focused on staying active with walking, weightlifting, swimming and biking around his neighborhood. He is looking forward to spending Father’s Day with his blended family, including his wife and two daughters, and the family’s newest addition, his granddaughter.

These are all things he once feared he might never get to do again.

“This was truly a miracle, and there are a lot of people who rallied behind him,” said Mrs. Wagner.

“I probably shouldn’t be here, so a lot of times I walk through life happy,” said Mr. Wagner.

Wagner said he received the greatest gift of life from the most generous organ donor.

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