Local Priest Receives Lifesaving Liver Transplant
Story by Karen A. Avitabile
Father Joshua Wilbur, who has been waiting for a liver donor, says his prayers have been answered.
Last Friday, he received a new liver following transplant surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital. “All things considered, I’m doing remarkably well,” he says this morning from his hospital room, adding he hopes to return home very soon. “We’ll see what else God has in store.”
Father Wilbur, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Oxford, was facing a critical, life-threatening autoimmune liver condition. Without the liver donation, doctors estimated he had about one or two years left to live. He was added to the hospital’s transplant waiting list in March.
Last Thursday, he learned about the transplant surgery and promptly notified his parishioners about it in a letter. “Through the great generosity of a family member and your prayers, a liver donor for me has been found.”
“I had anticipated that I would be receiving a piece of a liver through a living donor so I thought I would have some time to plan for surgery,” Father Wilbur says. “However, my prayers have been answered more immediately.”
A distant family member who recently died provided a matching liver for the priest’s transplant. The relative was the wife of his mother’s cousin. Last week, the liver was transported from a Maine hospital to Yale New Haven Hospital.
“It was hers and her immediate family’s wishes that I be named as the recipient of her liver upon her passing,” Father Wilbur says.
The priest expresses his gratitude to the donor’s family during this difficult time. “Her gift of life to me is an inexpressible gesture of generosity and faith that I have now been entrusted with,” he says. “I ask you to please keep her family in your prayers as I have been in yours, and yours in mine.”
Father Wilbur shares that he feels profoundly moved and deeply thankful for the “countless prayers and well wishes” he has received during his wait for a liver transplant. He had been managing his condition by undergoing blood transfusions every four to five weeks at Yale New Haven Hospital.
For the next few months, Father Wilbur will focus on his recovery. He adds that he looks forward to resuming his parochial obligations “as soon as the Lord allows.”