On a cold November morning in New York City, two Spiders walked through the light snowfall to New York-Presbyterian Hospital. It was still dark at 4 a.m., but the surgery would take six or seven hours. In 2012, after 20 years of battling an autoimmune liver disease, Matt Felix, R’85, (right) could hardly believe he would finally undergo a much-needed liver transplant — or that his former roommate beside him would be the donor.
Patrick Kacani, B’85, heard that Felix was sick through an email chain. “[It] was the length of Route 95,” Felix joked, but finding a donor match involves arduous medical testing and intimidating questionnaires that eliminated more than a few loved ones.
Yet Kacani knew he would be on the operating table. “I’ve talked to countless living donors who’ve had the same feeling: this clarity that I knew it was going to be me.”
The odds didn’t bother Kacani. “I’m Irish,” he quipped.
There was only a 10% chance Kacani, as a nonrelative, would be a match. But the odds didn’t bother Kacani. “I’m Irish,” he quipped. “Think about what the Irish do to their livers. It’s just genetic. It’s going to be bigger, stronger, and faster as generations grow, right?”
Kacani’s liver beat the odds. And now, when the two men compete at the Transplant Games of America together, Kacani (left) makes sure his old roommate knows that his liver got Felix across the finish line. Spider banter at its finest.