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Greg Cooper returns home after liver transplant
Effort to find Canfield AD a new liver a community effort
By Brian Dzenis
CANFIELD
Greg Cooper has plenty to be thankful for — and plenty of people to thank — this Thanksgiving.
The Canfield High School athletic director came home Tuesday evening for the first time since undergoing a liver transplant on Oct. 29. He arrived at his Canfield home to find a large sign in his front yard with hundreds of signatures of students wishing him well and also his family and some of his biggest benefactors in the search for a new liver.
“The chance to come home — particularly near a holiday where you have a chance to give thanks for your blessing — I’ve got more to be thankful for than ever,” Cooper said. “I’ve had a bountiful life, but to have someone give you a part of themselves, how do you top that?”
Cooper was diagnosed with nonalcoholic end-stage fatty liver disease-cirrhosis and had been waiting for a new liver since June. Assistant wrestling coach Dave Crawford donated 65 percent of his liver to Cooper after Cleveland Clinic doctors evaluated 46 candidates. On Tuesday, Crawford brushed aside any suggestion of heroism on his part, but soon found himself outnumbered by people who disagreed.
“He is a hero. How many people are willing to give up three weeks of their lives to undergo major surgery that they don’t have to do?” Cooper said. “It’s not like we were family — maybe we are now — but it wasn’t as if he had to do that. He did it because of his innate humanity. It was a truly great gesture on his part.”
The surgery the two men underwent is a rare one. Cooper said Cleveland Clinic informed him that he was just the 13th liver transplant involving a live donor that the Clinic has performed within the past year. Cooper and his family are nearing the end of what was a very involved process for not just the Cooper and the Crawford families, but for some who led the charge to help them.
“My dad died a year ago and Greg was diagnosed two days later. Emotionally, I was at rock bottom. Then I looked toward that beautiful lady [Clare Neff] and then [Ellen Bennett and Canfield mayor Richard Duffett] kind of took over from there,” Greg’s wife, Dayna Cooper said. “There were a lot of phones calls and it was a roller coaster.”
Neff and Bennett led the fundraising effort for incidentals from the surgeries and Duffett used his influence to get the word out that Cooper needed a donor. While Cleveland Clinic wouldn’t share with the Coopers who was stepping forward to donate due to HIPAA rules, word did reach far and wide. The athletic departments at Boardman and Howland High Schools put out a call for potential donors as did Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference commissioner John Mang to the local referee ranks. Duffett reached out to Vice Admiral Walter Carter Jr., the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy — where he and Cooper are alumni — for help.
“His classmates flew in for a big fundraiser and sitting with them was like being back at Navy,” Duffett said. “It was the common bond of being in the same company as Greg. They were there to support him.”
For a time, Dayna thought the Navy would come through with the donor. Then Crawford — who describes himself as “almost a merchant-marine” called Cooper.
“I wanted him to know because there were so many rumors going around about when it would happen and this or that,” Crawford said. “I wanted him to know so that he had somebody to talk to about how things were going.”
Michelle Crawford, Dave’s wife, didn’t think much of it when her husband starting getting tested as a potential donor as she figured he wouldn’t be selected.
“He said it like it was no big deal and so I thought it was no big deal,” Michelle said. “As the months went by, I started watching some videos on it and I thought, ‘This is pretty serious.’ ”
The Crawfords’ neighbors helped take care of her sons, Nick and Michael, while she was with Dave at the Clinic. A few area restaurants also donated some food.
“I just can’t go anywhere. I get [compliments] at Giant Eagle, the dentist, everywhere: ‘I can’t believe your husband is doing this,’” Michelle said.
Neff and Bennett, who are friends with Dayna, had done some fundraising work around Canfield but Greg Cooper was their biggest project to date. Insurance covered the costs of the operations for both men, but there were plenty of out-of-pocket expenses. Covering the cost of gas and tolls for visits to Cleveland Clinic were among them and the pair offered to use the funds to repay Dave’s lost wages from not coaching, but he declined.
Neff and Bennett declined to say how much money was raised but said that the sum was large enough that Greg and Dave both felt that they didn’t need all of it. A final destination for the rest of the money is being determined.
“I’d say it’s just overwhelming to see the outpouring of love and support from the community,” Bennett said. “I can’t put words into it. Just seeing these two here is overwhelming. It was honor to be a small part of it.”
As things tend to go in Canfield, everything gets done as a community. Greg Cooper has a lot of gratitude to hand out.
“Every person [involved] deserves our heartfelt thanks for going above and beyond in every sense of the word from Clare and Ellen setting up the fund and handling so many problems — problems we didn’t know about until it was solved — to the mayor of Canfield who epitomizes the motto of Canfield as the city that cares,” Greg said. “I very fortunate to know people that are like this here in the Valley that are willing to reach out to those in need and I guess I’m the recipient of that.”