"Jamie's story touched me"

By William K. Alcorn | alcorn@vindy.com

NILES

David Denovchek most likely saved Jamie’s life. On May 27, Denovchek, 28, of Niles, gave Jamie, 4, of Trumbull County 25 percent of the left lobe of his liver.

“It is an amazing feeling to have given Jamie a chance at life,” he said.

A little more than three weeks after the transplant, Denovchek is home feeling good but going crazy because of the physical restrictions – he can’t lift more than a gallon of milk or drive his car – imposed on him because of his surgery.

Jamie remains in serious but stable condition in Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital of UPMC, but is making slow but steady progress.

She was awakened from an induced coma this week and opened her eyes.

“The whites of her eyes were white again,” said Marilyn Pape, department manager for foster care and adoption at Trumbull County Children Services, which has had custody of Jamie for most of her life.

Jamie was born with biliary atresia, a condition in which the fetus fails to develop an adequate pathway for bile to drain from the liver to the intestine, resulting in a yellow discoloration of her skin and the whites of her eyes.

Her eye whites and skin returning to normal colors are signs the transplanted liver is working, said Pape.

“She’s a fighter. ... She’s going to come through this,” Pape said.

Denovchek, a registered veterinary technician at Family Pet Center-All Creatures Animal Hospital in Champion, says he has done things in the past to help people but has kept them to himself.

For instance, he said that on Valentine’s Day he brings flowers for each of his 30-some female co-workers.

“I like to make people smile,” he said.

“That’s how I live my life. I do things to help people in need. If I have something and someone else needs it, they are welcome to it,” Denovchek.

“Jamie’s story touched me,” he said.

“When I told my family and friends what I planned to do, no one was particularly surprised,” he said.

Denovchek was one of several hundred who answered a public plea by Pape and children services for people to sign up as potential donors for Jamie, who had been on the official donor list virtually since birth.

He underwent multiple screenings, first by telephone and then in person with medical doctors and psychologists and others to make sure he understood what the process would be like for him. The process entailed lots of blood work to make sure he was a viable match for Jamie, not all that much fun for someone who admits to “hating needles.”

“I was actually the alternate donor. But, something happened with the top candidate, and Angela Barber, liver and kidney donor coordinator for UPMC, said, ‘You’re it,’” he said.

Denovchek, son of Pete and Alice Denovchek of Austintown, is a 2004 graduate of Niles McKinley High School and a 2007 graduate of Youngstown State University.

He said his parents and brothers, Jon of Wadsworth and Earon of Columbus, and employer were very supportive of his decision.

That made it a lot easier to go forward, he said.

Denovchek said he does not in any way regret his decision to undergo transplant surgery, but admitted that when hospital people spent a lot of time describing the pain “they were not joking,” especially for the first two or three days.

He suggested that people considering being a donor in a living transplant talk with their family and friends and really think about it.

Three weeks after the surgery, he is up and feeling good – even walking miles daily around Niles. He said it is an amazing feeling to have given Jamie a chance at life. “It changes your life,” he said.

“I won’t be completely physically recovered for a year, and I will miss three or four months of work and the pay that goes with it,” he said.

He is anxious to get back to his normal life.

He said he enjoys being outside running, fishing in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and biking the Lake to River Bike Trail. He volunteers at Angels for Animals and HERPS Alive, a group in the Cleveland area involved in snake rescue and awareness.

He also reads a lot and doesn’t have cable television, although he has a large stack of movies to view.

At some point, Denovchek said he would like to meet Jamie and her foster parents when she is feeling better.

People who wish to help Denovchek can go online to www.gofundme.com/helpsafealife1 and follow the prompts.