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A new liver, a new life
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Liver disease is usually associated with alcohol abuse, but for Dale Smith and more than a million other Canadians, diet is most often the culprit
BY NELL BAKER
Dale Smith wants you to think long and hard about…your liver. That’s right, your liver. It’s one of the body’s most important and vulnerable organs and yet we barely give a thought to the state of this blood-cleansing, energy-producing part of our body. And we should. After all, there are more than 100 types of liver disease (only one of which is caused by alcohol abuse) affecting everyone from infants to seniors. Nearly one in 10 Canadians will face a liver ailment in their lifetime.
Smith, 61, is one of them. Because of a family history of liver disease, he was always proactive about his liver health and had special blood tests taken every year. He wasn’t overweight and only drank alcohol socially, stopping completely in the mid-1990s. His hectic schedule operating a busy Toronto executive search firm meant he had no time to exercise and he frequently ate fast food on the run. In 2004, Smith was diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common and fastest growing form
of liver ailment, affecting more than 1.4 million Canadians. His endocrinologist, Dr David Wong at Toronto Western Hospital, identified the culprit in his ailing health: his diet.
Smith immediately made changes to his lifestyle, hiring a personal trainer and working out in his condo’s gym several times a week, walking to his downtown office every morning, carefully reading food labels and eating more fresh fruits, veggies and fish. “But all I did was drag out the inevitable,’ he says. In 2006 Smith’s condition had progressed to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a more severe form of NAFLD. Then last year, he was diagnosed with liver cancer.
The only thing that could save his life was a liver transplant and they were hard to come by. “In Ontario there are about 400 people at any one time who are waiting for a new liver and it can be difficult to find a compatible match,” says Smith. “I was told the waiting time for a deceased liver was three to five years and there was no way I was going to last for that long.” His only hope was a live donor, but neither his wife or his three grown children were a match.
Word of his urgent need started to spread among his circle of friends and acquaintances. His son, Todd, uploaded a video onto You Tube appealing for a live donor. Smith ended up with 24 potential donors – friends, relatives and even a business client stepped
forward. His daughter, Lara, found donors through appeals to her church, her co-workers and community groups. Only one potential donor could be evaluated at a time and the first ten were disqualified. Smith, now confined to a hospital bed in his condo, was no longer working. His wife, Sharon, a nurse, provided constant daily support while his son Adam helped run the business.
Smith admits to moments of despair. An optimist by nature, he tried to keep his spirits up, “but there were those times when I’d feel like I was getting closer and closer to death. I’d feel terrified for a moment, but then I’d be able to pull myself back.” Then, a miracle. Just two weeks before Christmas, he received a call at 1 a.m. from the Toronto General Hospital: a liver from a brain dead patient was available and looked like a match. The transplant surgery took eight hours and six days later Smith was out of hospital. Within a few days he was keeping tabs on his business with his Blackberry and computer. A month later, he was back in the office part-time. “My new liver has been restoring my body and most importantly, my energy,” he says. “I feel better than I have in years.”
Smith is now a spokesperson with the Canadian Liver Foundation and has made it his mission to urge other Canadians to take care of their liver health. “We need to watch our diet – especially salt and fat – because everything gets processed through the liver,”
he says, noting that patients should specifically ask for a liver blood test during their annual physical. “We always think about taking care of our heart and our lungs, but we don’t realize the liver is every bit as important.’
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