Selfless priest donates kidney, then part of his liver

Nov 03, 2023

By John Shaughnessy
The inspiration for Fr Christopher Wadelton to donate part of his liver on September 18 to help save a stranger’s life came at a celebration a year ago.

It happened during a reception at a downtown Indianapolis hotel in which the pastor of St Bartholomew Parish in Columbus was honoured with other living organ donors —as Fr Wadelton had donated one of his kidneys in 2020 to improve the quality of life of a friend.

As he listened to the tributes for the other donors, Fr Wadelton was surprised to learn that some of them had donated both a kidney and part of their liver to make a difference in people’s lives.

The now 57-year-old priest didn’t realise that such a combination was even possible, but the more he thought about it, the more it intrigued him — especially when he considered the lives of the four people he had invited to the reception.

Fr Wadelton had met Rebeca Barcenas, her husband Rafael Ventura and their daughters, Jennifer and Carmen, when he previously served as the pastor of St Philip Neri Parish in Indianapolis.

In 2020, the then-37-year-old Barcenas had been on dialysis for seven years because of kidney failure. She longed to be the best mother she could be to her children and to have a normal family life. And she knew she needed a kidney transplant to have a chance to fulfil those goals.

Still, she was stunned when Fr Wadelton told her he was pursuing the possibility of being an organ donor for her. And she called him “an angel of God” when he said he would do it after extensive testing showed he was a compatible match.
As he shared the reception with the family of four, there was mutual joy.

“I saw the healing effect of a living donation at work right in front of me,” Fr Wadelton says. “She’s able to have a normal life. They’re able to go on vacation. They’re able to make plans for the future. She’s working, which helps her daughter Jennifer go to college. Just having the normal, fulfilling life with all the joys — without being tied to dialysis every other day, three days a week.

“She’s expressed her gratitude to me. A couple times a week, she’ll send me a text saying, ‘Remember we love you. We thank you for what you did for our family.’ It’s not the reason I did it, but it clearly shows she and her family are appreciative.”

That overwhelming appreciation flows from Barcenas when she talks about Fr Wadelton.

“He gave me this opportunity to be here for my family,” she says. “I always call him ‘my angel.’ He’s a good, good man. He’s with God. He’s our family. We celebrate birthdays together. I told him when he gets older, I’ll take care of him. We love him.”

Seeing the change in Barcenas and her family served as a primary motivation for Fr Wadelton to donate part of his liver to help save someone else’s life — even though he wouldn’t know the identity of the person he was trying to help.
This time, the surgery was far lengthier. And the intense pain he endured in the first few days of his recovery in the hospital led him to consider a question that he thought he never would ask.

Understanding the risks and the reward
“The surgery was much more extensive than I expected. It was almost 10 hours long, and the incision is probably 10 or 11 inches in length,” Fr Wadelton says. “The first couple days were pretty bad after surgery, just keeping comfortable with the pain.

“In the middle of [that first week of recovery], when I started feeling a little down because of the duration of the pain, I started questioning, ‘Was this worth it?’ But that’s when I had to remind myself that I was only a few days out from surgery, and that’s a small sacrifice to make with the hopeful health gain for the other person. I can put up with some pain for a few weeks if this person gets to live without liver problems for the rest of their life, God willing.”

As his medication began to help ease the pain, even more so did the impact of a conversation he had with one of the medical staff involved in the surgical removal of part of his liver and the transplant operation involving the donor recipient.

“I asked the person, ‘You probably can’t say anything, but is she doing OK?’ The comment was, ‘I can’t say anything, but you can see I have a big smile on my face.’ I took that as good news. That’s the only indicator that it’s gone well.”
Fr Wadelton’s surgeon had a similar reaction for the priest’s part of the transplant, telling him that the surgery was successful and that there were no concerns. Still, Fr Wadelton was told to ease into his recovery.

“They gave me the full worst-case scenario timing-wise,” he says. “They said I wouldn’t be able to drive for four to six weeks. And I have lifting restrictions for about three months. But then they kept couching that with, ‘Just listen to what your body is saying. Do what you feel you can do, but don’t push it.’ They indicated fatigue would be my biggest enemy. And that I would feel tired for several weeks.”

They also informed him about the recovery time for the regeneration of his liver, the only organ in the human body which can regenerate itself. Fr Wadelton was told his liver should regenerate to its original size in two to three months.

Equally amazing, the transplanted liver portion grows and restores normal liver function in the person receiving it.

Amid all that information and insights about the organ donation, Fr Wadelton had the intense desire to return to serving his parishioners at St. Bartholomew as soon as possible—especially in celebrating Mass for them and with them.

After a week of care and recovery in the Indianapolis home of his sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Todd Moore, he returned to his parish on Sept 29. Since then, he has begun to resume his role as pastor, benefitting — he says with a laugh — from “a bunch of mother hens [on the parish staff] who are protecting me from myself, which is beautiful. I really appreciate them.” --The Criterion