Guest Editorial: Liver transplant: A personal journey

The Sentinel Cumberlink | Wesley R. Mallicone

As a licensed athletic trainer at Shippensburg University, my job is to prevent, recognize, manage and rehabilitate injuries that result from physical activity. Athletic trainers can help individuals avoid unnecessary medical treatment and disruption of normal daily life.

How ironic then that my normal daily life was affected for years and that — as I watched the collegiate athletes run, jump, steal second base and dunk — I couldn’t partake in any physical activity myself; simply getting up and going to work was exhausting enough.

As a young boy, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and then primary sclerosing cholangitis as a teenager. Primary sclerosing cholangitis is a progressive disease that leads to liver damage and, eventually, liver failure. There was nothing I could do to change my condition. Liver transplant is the only known cure, so in 2009 I was placed on the waiting list for transplant.
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www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
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