Mike Galati Gets Liver; Assisted By Ex-Husky Courtney Gaine
The Hartford Courant | Dom Amore
UConn baseball coach Jim Penders, left, visits Mike Galati in the hospital. (Special to The Courant, Courtesy of Mike Galati / June 21, 2013)
Mike Galati got home from his job at Johnson & Johnson on Monday, settled in to eat dinner and watched TV. Another day seemed to have passed without the news he needed, the search for the liver donor he needed continued.
Then his phone rang and an incredible 36-hour chain of events began. It was John Gaine, the brother of former UConn women's basketball player Courtney Gaine. A long-time family friend had died suddenly of an aneurysm, the man was an organ donor and his son wanted Galati to receive his father's liver.
"We all kind of thought, 'this is a bittersweet story, and incredible act of kindness," Courtney Gaine said. "But it's probably not going to work out."
Though the deceased man, Judge J. Michael Conroy, was 67, his liver was exceptionally healthy and appeared to be a match. Surgeons traveled to Maryland to harvest the organ and, before he knew it, Galati was at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He was told he had a "direct donor" and prepped for the transplant. It was performed at 4 a.m. Wednesday, and it was successful.
Mike Galati got home from his job at Johnson & Johnson on Monday, settled in to eat dinner and watched TV. Another day seemed to have passed without the news he needed, the search for the liver donor he needed continued.
Then his phone rang and an incredible 36-hour chain of events began. It was John Gaine, the brother of former UConn women's basketball player Courtney Gaine. A long-time family friend had died suddenly of an aneurysm, the man was an organ donor and his son wanted Galati to receive his father's liver.
"We all kind of thought, 'this is a bittersweet story, and incredible act of kindness," Courtney Gaine said. "But it's probably not going to work out."
Though the deceased man, Judge J. Michael Conroy, was 67, his liver was exceptionally healthy and appeared to be a match. Surgeons traveled to Maryland to harvest the organ and, before he knew it, Galati was at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He was told he had a "direct donor" and prepped for the transplant. It was performed at 4 a.m. Wednesday, and it was successful.
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"You have the power to SAVE lives."
To register as a donor in California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
Outside California:
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net
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