Liver transplant is all in the family

DINGMAN — Ray Lizzi needed a permit, but he also needed to thank friends, when he spoke at a Dingmans Supervisors meeting this spring. Lizzi owns and operates Ray and Charles Diner on state Route 739, where he knows lots of folks and lots of folks know him and his family. After business was done (and he did get his permit to expand) Lizzi spoke, “I want to thank all the local residents who patronize my store for their business and their concern and prayers for my wife Barbara.” Barbara Lizzi developed Hepatitis C from some blood she received in transfusions decades ago. “The Hepatitis turned into a bigger problem and remained dormant for 25 years,” stated Lizzi. “Barbara needed a liver transplant and there are 92,000 people on the liver transplant list. Only 6,200 people a year are able to get a transplant,” he said. Without the transplant things looked dismal for Barbara. Only four percent of liver transplants come from live donors, but in Barbara’s case, their daughter Christine was there for her mom. “Our daughter Christine donated over half her liver to her mother on March 24.” Last spring they were both at home recovering. The liver regenerates in just eight to twelve weeks, and last spring that was already happening for Barbara and Christine. Now they have both recovered and are back at work at the family business. On a recent visit to Ray and Charles Diner we found both Barbara and her daughter hard at work, taking food orders and serving hungry customers. Lizzi was in the back making sure his employees were keeping up with the orders. Barbara told the Courier that Christine’s liver had grown back 100 percent although not the exact shape it had been and was functioning exactly as it had before the transplant Christine gave to her mom. “I’ll still have to be taking anti-rejection medication forever. My body knows the organ was not my own, but my new liver is working fine,” Barbara said.