Angel Fox has supported her husband, Bert, in more ways than one.
When Bert needed to have a liver transplant in 1995 following a bout with hepatitis, Angel became his biggest supporter and an outspoken advocate for the importance of organ donations.
More than two decades after Bert’s liver transplant, Angel is living the message she and her husband have preached for many years. On Wednesday, Angel will donate one of her kidneys to Bert at Hahnemann Hospital. The surgery will take place just a few months after doctors informed Bert one of his kidneys was failing after years of battling health issues.
The kidney transplant will not be the first time Bert will receive an organ donation. As a teenager, Bert became ill and doctors began treating him for mononucleosis.
“I was 16, 17, and I kept going in and out of the hospital,” he said. “They weren’t sure what was wrong with me, because back then they didn’t know as much as they knew today.”
In his early 20s, Bert got sicker and doctors discovered cryptogenic hepatitis, a form of hepatitis where the cause is unknown. Cryptogenic hepatitis can cause a person’s liver to develop liver disease. For about 25 years, Bert suffered from chronic liver disease before receiving a liver transplant in 1995.
For more than 20 years, Bert enjoyed his adult life with his new liver. He remains active and competed as a swimmer and volleyball player in the Donor of Life Transplant Games, an Olympic-style competition for people who have received an organ transplant.
“Nine out of 10 people, just looking at him, would never know he had a liver transplant 22 years ago,” Angel said.
Last winter, however, Bert had some irregularities with his blood work. After visiting the doctors, he was informed the anti-rejection drugs he had taken for the past 22 years after the liver transplant were causing problems with his kidneys.
Once the Fox family received the news, only one thought crossed Angel’s mind.
“He said, ‘You don’t even know if you’re going to be a match,’” Angel said. “I said, ‘Yes I am.’ He needs a kidney and I’m going to give it to him.”
Angel was a match, and the wheels were set in motion for the surgery to take place in April. Over the past three months, Angel has undergone a battery of tests to make sure the surgery would work.
“I had to make sure my kidney is good for him,” Angel said. “Then you have to make sure that I’m able to live the years of my life with one kidney.”
“I saw a nephrologist, urologist, surgeon, psychologist, since Jan. 5 until (the week of April 10),” she added.
In the days leading up to the surgery, Angel and Bert both experienced a range of emotions. Both were excited for the operation, but also nervous. Both were also thinking not about themselves, but of their spouse.
“I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m scared,” Bert said. “I’m worried about her.”
“I’m not worried about me for the surgery,” Angel said. “I’m worried about seeing him when I’m done.”
Angel and Bert both recognize the need for more organ donors. According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, more than 122,000 people in the United States were on the waiting list to receive an organ transplant in 2015. In addition, while 95 percent of Americans support organ donation, only 48 percent are signed up as donors.
Angel and Bert encourage everyone they meet to sign up as an organ donor, saying anyone could be a savior to someone in need of an organ. New Jersey residents can sign up to become an organ donor at www.donatelifenj.org.
Bert speaks highly of his previous liver transplant, saying the operation allowed him to enjoy an active and healthy life.
Angel is thrilled she’ll be able to keep Bert living happy and healthy for years to come.
“He’s my world,” she said. “He’s my husband. I have to have him with me.”
