PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

Transplant team works on one of its own

A Cincinnati transplant surgeon gains fresh insight after getting a new liver.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. March 1, 2004.

Death crept into the thoughts of Steve Woodle, MD, as he prepared for his next surgery.

As a transplant surgeon, he regularly deals with the life-and-death issues of people who need organ donations for a chance to survive. But this time, he was the one on the operating room table getting a liver transplant.

"The possibility of not waking up crosses your mind. You just say your final prayers and trust everybody," said Dr. Woodle, 50, director of the division of transplantation at the University of Cincinnati.

The operation last fall was a success, and Dr. Woodle is now part of a unique group -- U.S. transplant surgeons who have had their own organ transplant.

The United Network for Organ Sharing knows of four transplant surgeons, including Dr. Woodle, who were organ recipients.

Besides giving him a new lease on life, being a recipient has brought him closer to his patients.

"I say, 'Yeah, I know what you're going through,' " he said. "You can identify with them a little bit more."

And he reminds patients, and himself, not to worry.

"Every time you think about dying ... you lose a minute [you could be] doing something else," he said.

Dr. Woodle learned he had cancer in 1999, when he went to a Houston surgeon for a hernia repair and the doctor found two tumors on his liver.

"The first thing is a lot of fear. Then you want to know how bad it is," he said.

Two weeks later, two-thirds of his liver was removed. Six weeks later, Dr. Woodle started a new job at the University of Cincinnati, directing the transplant program at UC's University Hospital.

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