A second chance at life
Unexpected liver donation saves local coach’s life
Eric Blackwell, of Lockeford, was working with his father at their business, Blackwell Heating and Air last year, when he found out he had liver cancer.
By chance and unfortunate circumstances, he was able to receive his life-saving liver transplant from a boy from Galt, Michael Balsley-Rodriguez, who died last month as a result of a gun accident. The two were coincidentally connected by a local football team, the Lodi Titans, but had never met.
Blackwell first went to his doctor two years ago with concerns about his health. He was feeling bloated and lethargic. He was never a big drinker, but any casual alcoholic drink would make him feel sick.
He was sent in for CAT scans in April 2015 when it was discovered he had a fatty liver with nodules that doctors initially thought were benign. A fatty liver could occur either due to an unhealthy lifestyle or genetics, Blackwell was told.
When he returned a year later with a cold, the doctor suggested he have bloodwork done to check on his liver. His results raised alarms and doctors discovered the nodules had grown into tumors. After a biopsy, Blackwell was formally diagnosed with liver cancer on May 18, 2016.
The prognosis was grim. The tumors were too large for Blackwell to be eligible for a liver transplant and the best
“It’s not a problem now that I have a second chance in life. I want to do right by Michael (Balsley-Rodriguez) and his family.” ERIC BLACKWELL LOCKEFORD LIVER CANCER SURVIVOR
they could do was extend his life with chemotherapy.
“The oncologist was telling me there’s nothing we can do and that I had three to five years to live,” Blackwell said.
His mother, who went with him to that appointment, told him not to give up.
“That’s his opinion,” she told her son. “We’re not going to let that define us.”
His support system of his girlfriend, his parents and friends were a major part in helping him pull through the ordeal, he said. A friend even held a benefit dinner for him to help pay for his medical expenses, he said.
He continued living his life and began coaching with the Lodi Titans in June last year, helping the 6- to 8-year-olds.
Blackwell chose a more holistic route in his fight against liver cancer. He sought help from a clinic in Mexico, where he was evaluated with x-rays and bloodwork before he received a complete diet plan and medication, a tonic, to improve his immune system.
“They told me no tomato, vinegar or peanuts. It was highly recommended that everything I ate was organic,” he said.
Although the lifestyle change worked to shrink his tumors, he still opted to go through with chemotherapy to help treat the cancer after speaking with doctors at UCSF Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente.
His hard work paid off and he found that his tumors had shrunk enough to be eligible for a transplant. He was approved to be added to the transplant list on March 9, earlier this year. Doctors spoke to him about the possibility of a live donor and to ask friends and family to get blood tested to see if they were a match.
That was the same day that tragedy struck in Galt when 13-year-old Michael Balsley-Rodriguez suffered severe injuries as a result of a gun accident. He was tested and deemed brain dead on March 11. The family opted to donate his organs.
Blackwell knew a woman who was friends with Sylvia Van Steyn, the boy’s mother. She mentioned that Blackwell had liver cancer and was in need of a transplant. Van Steyn got Blackwell in touch with a transplant coordinator and soon there was a chance Blackwell could beat cancer.
Doctors ran blood tests and stress tests on Blackwell and found that Michael’s O+ blood was compatible with Blackwell’s B- blood type.
“It was so quick how everything happened. I think it was the best way for me to do it, because I couldn’t sit there and dwell on it,” he said.
On Tuesday, March 14, he went into surgery for a liver transplant. A biopsy of the old liver showed that the condition was worse than doctors initially thought, but the cancer did not spread.
With the transplant, Blackwell is now cancer free.
He is still susceptible to developing a fatty liver again in the future, so he now must ensure that he exercises regularly and eats well.
“It’s not a problem now that I have a second chance in life. I want to do right by Michael and his family,” he said.
Although the two never really met, Blackwell has been in contact with Sylvia a few times and they plan to meet after he is healed and perhaps talk about helping with the Michael’s Miracle Foundation, she is setting up.
“I hope that it gives her a little bit of ease that he was able to save eight people’s lives,” he said.
Blackwell is still recovering at home with family must stay away from crowds for the next three months while he takes medicines that prevent his body from rejecting the new organ and suppress his immune system.
His outlook is positive and he is glad he made the decision to keep fighting even though he was told he didn’t have much of a chance to survive.
“Whatever doctor’s diagnose you with, don’t let it be your fate,” Blackwell said.