Special Bond Springs From A Tragic Loss

Mike Cardew

Akron Beacon Journal

Associated Press

CANTON (AP) -- If their lives had gone the way they would have liked, they never would have met. But a special relationship has grown between a liver transplant recipient and the widow of the man who donated the organ.

The July 29, 1999, death of Stark County Sheriff W. Bruce Umpleby Jr., 63, created a bond between his widow, Hallie, who approved the organ donation, and Chuck Cooper, athletics director at Wooster High School.

"There was an immediate bond between the two families that can't be explained,'' Mrs. Umpleby said. "Everyone talked like friends who had known each other for a long time.''

The day after the sheriff died of a burst blood vessel in the brain, Cooper got a call and began the 50-mile trip north to the Cleveland Clinic for a lifesaving transplant.

During the drive, "It finally occurred to me that somewhere a family was grieving over losing a loved one and here I was excited about it,'' said Cooper, who turns 49 today.

The sheriff had filled out an organ donor card, but his family still faced the question: Would they give permission to transplant his organs?

"Our youngest son said, 'Don't let them cut up Dad,' '' Mrs. Umpleby said. "I told him, 'If this saves one life, it's what your father would have wanted.' ''

Cooper and Mrs. Umpleby corresponded anonymously through the transplant agency and finally met in October.

The first few times Cooper tried to write to the Umpleby family to express his gratitude, he was overcome by tears and couldn't proceed.

"Bruce and Hallie obviously made a difference. On what had to be the worst day of her life, Hallie made a decision to make a difference in somebody else's life,'' Cooper said.

While transplant agencies protect a donor's identity, Cooper had a hunch that he had received the sheriff's liver. Umpleby's death had been widely reported. Instead of contacting the family directly, he followed protocol and sent letters to the LifeBanc transplant agency, which forwarded them to Mrs. Umpleby.

She learned Cooper's identity by scratching off the Wite-Out that LifeBanc officials used to conceal his name on letters. Cooper got letters signed "Hallie'' and confirmed that was the name of the sheriff's widow.

Cooper and Mrs. Umpleby will appear together next Saturday at the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse to be recognized at the second annual Hoops For Healing basketball classic promoting acceptance of organ transplants.

The event was developed by another high-school athletics director and two college basketball coaches: Lake High School's Bruce Brown, Malone College's Hal Smith and Walsh University's Steve Loy. The three have primary sclerosing cholangitis, as did Cooper.

In April, Smith got a live-donor transplant from Malone softball coach Sharon Looney.

Cooper learned two years ago that he has PSC, which attacks liver bile ducts. He lost nearly 50 pounds from his 6-foot, 7-inch frame and became a transplant priority when he developed jaundice, fatigue, chills and bleeding from the esophagus.

Copyright © 2000 The Columbus Dispatch.

This article posted January 15, 2001.