LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A father of five just got out of the ICU after receiving a life-saving surgery that should give him the chance to meet his first grandchild.
In 2015, Scott Williams — who grew up in Louisville, attended Jeffersontown High School and now lives in Westfield, Indiana — had blood clots in his liver, so doctors put him on blood thinners. Six years later, he had a stroke, so doctors took him off the blood thinners, causing them to find new clotting all throughout his liver portal vein.
"It's been a roller coaster, really," said Gretchen Williams, Scott's mother.
Doctors ordered a multi-organ transplant, putting him on the United Network for Organ Sharing Transplant list.
"He doesn't want to be just laying there," said Amber Welker-Williams, Scott's wife. "He wants to be out doing things."
Eventually, the call came: He was going to receive a new pancreas, liver and parts of a small intestine.
"I'm like 'Oh my gosh! My brother got his organs. He just got the call,'" said Kelly Williams, Scott's sister. "I couldn't even believe it. He was only on the list for 10 days that all three of his organs became available for one donor, same blood type. And his doctor said 'We just can't pass these organs up.'"
On June 22, in Indianapolis, Scott Williams received the multi-visceral transplant after an eight-hour surgery. The 50-year-old was in the ICU for seven weeks, unable to talk, with a tracheostomy tube.
"It's a miracle, really," Kelly Williams said. "But there is that whole other side of it where somebody else is grieving."
Doctors released him from the ICU on Thursday. He is now in an Organ Transplant Critical Care Unit.
Like the person who gave to Scott Williams, you can become an organ donor in less than a minute by registering online here. Donate Life Kentucky said, on any given day, there are 1,000 Kentuckians waiting for a transplant. An average of seventeen people die each day waiting, a number that's actually improved from 22 over the last 10 years.
In 2022, 80,000 people joined the Kentucky Organ Donor Registry.
"Patients are left depending on the generosity of strangers," Donate Life Kentucky says on its website. "Our organization provides hope of continued life for those countless children and families in need."
A very rare surgery and a sacrifice from another family gave new found hope to the Williams family.
"Take a hard look at organ donation, because it's a miracle to the family that's receiving that organ," Gretchen Williams said.
If you'd like to make a donation to Scott's family to help him pay his medical bills, click here.
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