An opportunity to give someone life

A recipient of a liver transplant 8 years ago, boy now educates people on organ donation

April 16, 2005

Brookfield -- Julie Holloway never thought much about organ donation. Then her little boy needed a liver transplant.

Faces Of Hope

Evan Holloway, 12, throws out the first pitch at the Milwaukee Brewers vs. St. Louis Cardinals game Friday night at Miller Park. Evan was 3 1/2 when doctors told his family he would need a liver transplant.

Wisconsin Coalition on Donation

Mission: The coalition is dedicated to saving lives and improving quality of life by collectively increasing organ, tissue, eye, bone marrow and blood donation through public awareness and education.

Address: 9200 W. Wisconsin Ave., Wauwatosa, WI 53226

Phone: (414) 805-4695 or (608) 261-6854

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About This Series

"Faces of Hope" focuses on people in the Milwaukee area who need a hand and the agencies that are helping them. Ideas? Call: James E. Causey (414) 224-2318 or e-mail hope@journalsentinel.com

"I thought, 'Who wants to think about death?' I just didn't," Julie said. "Afterwards, it's like, 'Why wouldn't you?' "

That was eight years ago. Today her son is 12. His name is Evan.

Evan was 3 1/2 years old when doctors diagnosed him with Alpha-1Antitrypsin Deficiency. He had cirrhosis of the liver and would need a transplant, his family learned.

In the years leading up to the diagnosis, however, Julie noted that as a toddler, Evan "seemed to catch everything." He got a lot of bloody noses and had "sick eyes" all the time, she said.

He wasn't healthy and didn't have the stamina she thought an active tyke should.

She had him checked several times. Doctors thought she was a "nervous mom."

Then one day a doctor felt his belly. Something wasn't right. His spleen was enlarged to six times its normal size.

In late 1996, his name was put on a waiting list for organ donation.

Julie was six months pregnant with the family's second child, Kendall, now 7, a daughter who was born with autism. In the weeks that followed, Julie recalled the day she sat in church crying but not knowing why. Maybe it was the music, she thought.

The phone call came the next morning. A 19-year-old Marquette University student had been killed in a car crash on a Sunday morning in February 1997. A donor had been found for Evan in just seven weeks.

Evan was in the hospital for nine days after the transplant, but an illness linked to the liver put him back in the hospital between July and October of 1997. He nearly died, his mother said.

Today, he does the same things as other children but must be constantly checked through blood draws for possible rejection of the organ, his mom said.

A seventh-grader at Wisconsin Hills Middle School in Brookfield, Evan is into art. He uses a thin, black marker to sketch a Fender guitar as he draws at his family's kitchen table.

He's been taking guitar lessons. Electric. He enjoys playing "Layla" by Eric Clapton.

He had a bit of influence from his dad, Richard, a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, who has a collection of 14 guitars and has played in a band.

His cats' names are Coquette and Leo, and he's lobbying his parents for a dog.

But it's a bear that now rests in a small wooden box with golden hinges that helped him cope with the difficulties he has faced.

"His name is Furry," Evan said, "even though he has no fur left."

"That really is loved, isn't it?" his mom said, laughing at the tiny brown bear, with patches of baldness from head to toe.

Evan still remembers the day he got Furry. It was shortly before his liver transplant. His mom had taken him to the gift shop at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

"I picked out the bear," Evan recalled. "He was my little bud."

Evan and his family are now involved with the Wisconsin Donor Network, volunteering their time to educate people about organ donation, or at the very least, asking them to simply think about it.

Evan's story will be the subject of a video that will soon be shown statewide to high school driver's education classes.

"I talked about my hobbies," he said of the yet-to-be-released video. "I talked about how good it is to be alive. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the liver transplant."

More donors needed

One person dies every three days waiting for an organ transplant in Wisconsin, said Tim Olsen, president of the Wisconsin Coalition on Donation, a group of multiple organizations promoting organ, tissue, blood, eye and bone marrow donation awareness statewide.

More than 1,500 people in Wisconsin and 87,000 nationally are awaiting organ transplantation, according to the coalition.

In Wisconsin, potential donors need only sign the back of their driver's licenses and tell their family of their wishes, Olsen said.

One organ and tissue donor can help 70 people, Olsen said, noting "it's hard to see past that when you have your own personal tragedy. If you're able to see past that and prevent tragedy for other families, that's a great opportunity."

On Friday, one of the group's promotions during April's National Donate Life Month came to Miller Park for the second consecutive year. About 110 tickets were sold to families and individuals involved with Donor Awareness Night at the ballpark.

Booths provided information, the governor gave a recorded public service announcement, and Evan threw out the first pitch as the Milwaukee Brewers took on the St. Louis Cardinals.

Evan used to play Little League Baseball and played some basketball.

Although he doesn't do sports much anymore, he was no less thrilled than any other 12-year-old asked to throw out the first pitch at a major league baseball game.

"It's pretty cool," he said.

This article posted May 18, 2005.