Sweet Reprieve

Describes his battle with illness, his successful liver transplant, and the role his wife played in his recovery

Frank Maier, Newsweek 's Chicago Bureau Chief, writes with wit, style, and grace about his liver transplant, the most complex single-organ operation of its kind. The first journalist to undergo this surgery and the only transplant patient to write of the experience, he describes the sudden onset of odd symptoms--vertigo, confusion, fatigue--and his subsequent denial of the possibility of illness. His determined wife, Ginny, took over, scheduling Frank at the Mayo Clinic where tests showed chronic viral hepatitis C had ravaged his liver. Facing a terminal situation, Frank was given a second chance with the transplanted liver of a teenage boy in Louisiana. Although Frank lost his final battle on December 31, 1990, he left a legacy of inspiration and triumph; his son Michael added a postscript to the finished book. This sad but uplifting memoir fills a gap in the available literature, which is dominated by such medical tomes as Transplantation of the Liver , edited by Willis Maddrey (Elsevier, 1988). Strongly recommended.
- Janet Coggan, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.