By Norm Parish, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 27, 2005

If there are plans to create a local poster figure for liver transplants, Aaron J. Cameron acknowledged that he could be one.

The 76-year-old north St. Louis County man will have lived with a donated liver for 20 years on Dec. 30 - one of the longest survivors locally of a liver transplant, hospital officials said.

"He is doing incredibly well," said Dr. Jeffrey Crippin, a hepatologist who has been involved with Cameron. "He is 20 years out. It is hard for anyone to be doing better than how Aaron is doing now."

Last week, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis celebrated Cameron''s success with cake and punch. Other liver transplant survivors attended the event to recognize Cameron.

"(Cameron) has encouraged other people to go through with transplants," Crippin said. "He has given his second chance gift back many times over."

Cameron received his transplant at Barnes-Jewish Hospital after suffering from primary sclerosing cholangitis. The ailment caused his liver to fail. Unlike some other organs, there aren''t external medical support devices to help patients suffering from failing livers.

Cameron needed a transplant.

"I was tired all the time," recalled Cameron who continued then to work as an electronics mechanic. "I was weak. I couldn''t cut the grass. ... Sometimes I didn''t want to eat."

His wife, Elaine, recalled: "It was hard. He was pitiful. He was very thin. He lost more than 30 pounds. He would go to work and come home and fall asleep. ... But I tried to stay positive."

Cameron received a liver from a donor in South Carolina. Transplants were becoming more popular in 1985 because that was the same year that the drug cyclosporine, which is used to prevent or treat organ rejection in transplant patients, was available to help with liver transplants, Crippin said.

Barnes Hospital had just begun its liver transplant program that spring, becoming the first hospital to have a liver transplant program in St. Louis, hospital officials said. Cameron was the 10th person to receive such a transplant at Barnes. There is only one survivor who received a transplant at the hospital before Cameron, and that patient lives in the Springfield, Mo., area, hospital officials said.

The first year is the toughest after a transplant. About 10 percent to 15 percent of transplant patients die after receiving a new liver, Crippin said.

Cameron was hospitalized three times within the first year after his transplant. He said he has not had any other medical problems that might be tied to the transplant.

After he made it through his first year following his transplant, he promoted organ donations at health-related events.

Today, there is still a big need for organ donors, hospital officials said. For example, Barnes-Jewish has a waiting list of 119 people seeking liver donors. The hospital now conducts about 55 adult liver transplants a year, officials said.

Overall, about 10 percent to 20 percent of people waiting for a liver die before they get one, Crippin said.

"Some people might say those are pretty good odds, but if you are in that 10-20 percent group, then those odds become very unfavorable," Crippin said.

For more information about organ donations, call Mid-America Transplant Association at 314-991-1661.