Liver transplant and sobriety saves a patient’s life

Like many teenagers, Kendon Greene, 44, took his first taste of alcohol at 17. But it wasn’t until life threw him a series of hard punches that he began to use alcohol to escape a painful reality. His two sons were born with serious health conditions, and his ex-wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. The final blow came in May 2019 when he had to close his restaurant, an establishment that had been named one of the Top 50 barbecue restaurants in Texas. By then, Kendon was drinking a gallon of vodka a day. “I’ve learned that darkness will sit and wait for the perfect moment to get a hold of you,” he says.

In 2021, Kendon lost 40 pounds in two weeks. At one point, he was rushed to the hospital with severe gastrointestinal bleeding. After a series of tests, Kendon was diagnosed with advanced cirrhosis: 54 percent of his liver was gone. He began to experience complications like hepatic encephalopathy and neuropathy. He was swollen, and underwent paracentesis every Friday.

“My feet were always in pain, my diabetes was not under control, and I started to forget things,” Kendon says. “I couldn’t remember my birthday, who the president was. I was dying. Doctors told me I’d never get a transplant. They told my parents that I wasn’t going to wake up one day. Then I met Dr. Asrani.”

In 2022, under the leadership of Sumeet Asrani, MD, MSc, Chief of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at Baylor Scott & White Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute, Baylor University Medical Center, (Baylor Dallas) part of Baylor Scott & White Health established a multidisciplinary clinic program to help patients dealing with both their liver disease and alcohol abuse, the first of its kind in North Texas.

The clinical program arose from a consensus conference, Liver Transplantation in Acute Alcoholic Hepatitis, hosted in 2019 by Baylor Dallas and Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth. The conference brought together experts from around the world to develop guidelines on how to manage patients with this severe form of alcoholic liver disease and criteria for how to determine candidacy for liver transplant.

Potential transplant candidates go through an extensive, multidisciplinary evaluation by Dr. Asrani, an abdominal transplant surgeon and a clinical psychologist. If the group reaches consensus, they then recommend the patient undergo a liver transplant evaluation.

“Dr. Asrani asked me if I could stop drinking, and I said ‘Yes, I’m done,’” Kendon says. “He said if I stopped drinking, he would get me a transplant. I had my last drink March 3, 2024.”

From March 3 to Oct. 7, the day of his transplant, Kendon worked to get stronger – physically, mentally and spiritually. He met frequently with the ALD clinic team. He had weekly blood and urine testing. Kendon worked tirelessly to regain strength in physical therapy, and met weekly with the transplant psychologist, whom he still sees monthly post transplant.

Today, Kendon is thriving. He accepts any and all invitations to speak to recovery groups about his sobriety. He has returned to mentoring, working with The Black Caddie Academy, a group that teaches troubled youth and children with learning disabilities the game of golf.

“I have found my joy in mentoring,” Kendon says. “I really believe this is why I have not wanted another drink. The best part: I’m just a few months away from reopening my restaurant.”