He was concerned the surgery would affect his son’s health, so he preferred to wait for a liver from a deceased donor.
Rick received the call he had been waiting for—a liver had become available, and it was going to be airlifted to University Hospital in Madison for his transplant. But that day, Madison experienced one of the worst ice storms the city had ever seen, and the helicopter couldn’t land at the hospital. The liver ultimately went to another transplant patient, and Rick was back on the wait list.
Arick’s dad had been diagnosed with liver cancer in summer 2022, and as he underwent tests for transplant, so, too, did several of his family members to find out if they would be suitable donors. It turned out that Arick was the only one who matched his dad’s blood type, but he needed to lose 40-50 pounds to be healthy enough to donate.
Once Arick lost weight and his father lost his first chance at a liver, Arick had a heart-to-heart talk with his dad. “I told him, ‘I think I’m going to do this anyway,’” he said. “At that point, I was healthy enough to donate part of my liver to someone else, if he didn’t want mine.”
“Arick was the perfect donor for his dad,” says Dr. David Al-Adra, the surgeon who removed a portion of Arick’s liver when he donated to his father on April 23, 2023. “He was well informed, healthy and showed his dedication and motivation to donate by working hard to lose a significant amount of weight.”
Even though he knew it would be a difficult surgery, Arick said that it made sense to him to be there for his dad, adding “I wanted him to be around.”
Arick’s recovery was much easier than expected—he said having to use a catheter was the worst part for him. His dad also recovered well, and more than a year after the surgery, doctors have not seen any signs of the cancer returning.
Now, Arick and his dad hit the gym together four times a week—Arick lives just five blocks away from his parents.
Arick says he’s incredibly glad he made the decision to be a living liver donor. “It was like every single thing I did in my life was leading up to that moment,” he said.