Family gives special thanks to organ donation, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

By Kiran Chawla | WAFB

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - One Baton Rouge family is saying thank you for the life of a loved one. The Shiroda family spent Thursday giving thanks for more than just the food on their table, their friends and their family. They were grateful for the second chance at life for their wife and mother.

Wendy Shiroda is 41 years old. She is the proud mother of Luke, 12, and wife to John Shiroda for 17 years. It was the little things, like family time with their dog, the trio was second guessing just two years ago.

"They did a liver biopsy and found out that I had a liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis, which is a narrowing of the bile tux," said Wendy Shiroda.

At 18, Wendy was diagnosed with the liver disease. The next year, she went to Duke Medical Center in North Carolina for a liver bypass. The surgery held her over for the next 19 years.

"I waited for 19 years, but finally I was sick enough when I was 38 years old to get put on a liver transplant waiting list at Ochsner in New Orleans," she explained.

She was sick to the point that she couldn't even get out of bed and enjoy the smallest things in life, like family time or playing with her son.

"I was dying. I was as close to dead as you can get," she recalled.

"I thought is she going to die? Is she going to live? What's going on? It's just so much to process," said Luke Shiroda.

In May 2007, Wendy was put on the list at Ochsner. A month later, she got the call.

"The doctors came flying in the room, a whole team of doctors, and said, ‘You're not going to believe this. We have a liver for you. You're getting a liver transplant in just a few hours,'" she said.

Unfortunately, it was a false alarm. The doctors said it was difficult to find the perfect liver for Shiroda, who is blood type A-positive. And at just 84 pounds, liver size was also an issue. Nearly two years later, January 2009, Wendy and her father drove down to Ochsner, where there was another false alarm.

"Your hopes go. They were here and they go straight down when you hear something like that," she said.

However, her family refused to call it quits. It was tough, but then she received the call that changed everything.

"About 2 in the morning, the phone rang and said, ‘Hi, this is Ochsner. We do have a liver for you. This is your liver. It's a perfect, perfect flawless liver,'" she said.

Thanks to a selfless anonymous donor, February 11, 2009 was the day Shiroda was given new life.

"I have two birthdays, April 22 and February 11. I was definitely given a second chance at life. I'm grateful, very grateful for the gift that they gave me," she explained.

It's a gift Wendy's husband and son call priceless.

"To that family, I say, ‘Thank you.' I know at their table there's an empty seat today, there's not one at mine," John Shiroda said.

"I've got my mother back. She's healthy. She's going to live. Everything's getting back to normal. It's getting nice again," said Luke Shiroda.

Now, it's the smallest things in life that mean the world for this mother, wife, daughter, sister and so much more, all thanks to an organ donor.

"It got cold here. First thing I said to my husband is you gotta light the fireplace, you gotta light the fireplace. He said why? I said just cause all of us sitting around watching TV with the fireplace means everything to me," she added.

In Louisiana alone, there are more than 1,700 people in need of a life-saving organ transplant. So far this year, there have been 300 transplants in the state. One donor can save up to nine lives.