Newspaper With a Heart: Liver Disease Raised Need for Assistance

LAKE ALFRED | By the time DeWayne Oaks was diagnosed with hepatitis C, his liver was shot. That's the insidious nature of the infection. Destruction can go unnoticed for decades, until it's too late.

Confronted with the frightful diagnosis in 2006, Oaks, a trucker from Lake Alfred, sought medical treatment through the Veterans Administration. He spent the next few years in declining health and it cost him his job.

Despite monetary assistance from friends and relatives, Oaks and his wife, Barbara, who stocks shelves at Wal-Mart, find themselves unable to meet expenses, prompting a request for help through The Ledger's Newspaper with a Heart program.

Now in its 40th year, the Heart program gives families and individuals in crisis the assistance to weather a short-term financial storm. The stories reflected in the newspaper represent only a fraction of those who receive help made possible by contributions from generous donors.

Oaks, 55, finally got a new liver just a few days after Christmas, but by then he and his wife were deep in debt and facing foreclosure on their home. To buy time, relatives and friends raised nearly $8,000, said Oaks, but it wasn't enough.

With the Heart program's further assistance with household expenses, Oaks said he can make it through the next few months of recuperation from his liver transplant, then go back to work for R&L Carriers.

"I was making good money, $800 to $900 a week," Oaks said of his freight delivery days, driving an 18-wheeler on daily runs to the Cocoa Beach area, leaving at 7 a.m. and returning by 7 p.m. "I was pretty big," he said. "I could handle my own, I got my gym workout at work. But now it's hard for me to lift anything."

TRACED TO VIETNAM
Oaks traces his illness to his days as a tractor driver aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, helping launch and land aircraft from the waters off Vietnam between 1971 and 1973, when he left the Navy.

Oaks said he's not sure how he contracted hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver, but Vietnam veterans do have a higher than normal incidence of the disease, according to the Hepatitis Research Foundation.

Exposure to tainted blood either through direct contact or by way of infected needles is a contributing factor.

Another sobering statistic: As many as 10,000 Americans die each year from the disease, while another 1,000 are saved annually through liver transplants. Roughly two-thirds of those infected never experience early symptoms such as fatigue, muscle aches and nausea.

In Oaks' case, it began with a sharp pain in his side, which turned out to be a symptom of cirrhosis, which led to the discovery of hepatitis C. For two years the VA doctors kept Oaks somewhat stable through medications, he said, but his condition and the pain worsened.

Too weak and disoriented to continue driving for a living, Oaks took advantage of the Family Medical Leave Act and stopped working in September. He said he was counseled to drop medical coverage through the VA so that he might increase his chances for a liver transplant.

"They told me it was because of all the red tape and bureaucracy in Washington" that veterans who use the VA wait longer for a transplant, Oaks said.

So in October, using his employer-based health policy, Oaks was able to obtain the services of LifeLink Foundation and Tampa General Hospital. There was more testing, medications and a diet of mostly leafy greens, chicken and fish.

And then on Dec. 27 at 3:30 a.m. he got the first phone call from LifeLink.

The Oaks jumped in their car and drove to the Tampa hospital, only to learn a few hours later that the donor kidney did not pass the scrutiny of his doctors. The Oaks were sent home.

"It didn't bother me too much," Oaks said. "I wasn't really ready, I was so nervous. You don't realize the emotions you go through. When they said go home I could kind of calm down."

He and his wife said that hospital staff raised hopes for a second chance by mentioning that the traffic death rate rises during the holidays, because more people are drinking and driving. And while they're not certain of the circumstances, the Oaks were back at TGH the next evening. By 8 p.m. Oaks was under the knife.

"That liver transplant just changed my life," he said. "The pain is gone."