Highlands Ranch
Three years ago, Russ Pendergrass realized he might hold the key to saving his son’s life.
If only he could lose some weight.
Time passed. His son, born with a condition called biliary atresia that is destroying his liver, was still on a donor list. Pendergrass worried and put on more weight.
And then last summer he looked upon his son’s pregnant wife and thought about the unborn child who would need a father.
It was time for action.
“The possibility of facing my grandson being raised without his father when I could do something to help hit me,” Pendergrass said. “I could do something about saving his father’s life.”
Pendergrass learned three years ago that he could be a live liver donor for his adopted son. But a liver donor needs to weigh about the same as the person receiving the liver.
Since that day in June when he looked at his pregnant daughter-in-law, Pendergrass, 53, has lost 40 pounds, sculpted a muscular physique and earned a place as one of six finalists in the nationwide Body for Life Challenge. Now at a trim 200 pounds – down to a 36 waist size from a 44 – the Navy captain is physically ready to donate part of his liver to his son, if necessary.
“It’s not a surprise to me that this is something he would do,” said Pendergrass’ son, Michael, 27. “This is not something we ever discussed. He took it upon himself as a fatherly responsibility because he thought that is what a father should do.
“That is the kind of man my father is.”
Votes in the Body for Life Challenge are being taken online through Friday., and the winner takes home $1 million. Finalists were selected based on weight loss and reason to change. As of Wednesday evening, Pendergrass was in second place with 23 percent of the vote.
Winning would go a long way in helping pay for Michael’s medical bills, but the family says it’s more important that people learn about liver disease.
“It’s about achieving something you can’t buy, possibly a cure or a step closer to a cure,” Michael Pendergrass said. “Liver disease doesn’t get as much attention as heart disease because most people attribute it to alcoholics. I’ve never touched alcohol. People need to be aware that liver disease affects everybody.”
Michael Pendergrass was born with biliary atresia, a liver disease that eventually develops into cirrhosis. It occurs when the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the intestine are inflamed or obstructed, causing bile to back up into the liver. The illness affects one in every 15,000 births, according to the American Liver Foundation.
Most infants now undergo the same surgery Michael did, called the Kasai procedure, that uses a part of the intestine to act as a new duct outside of the liver. Russ Pendergrass, who adopted Michael, thought the disease had been pre-empted.
The procedure, however, is a temporary fix, and most patients need transplants by their teenage years.
Michael is one of the oldest people living with the disease who has not had a transplant. He has been listed for a liver donation for three years and is 15th on the transplant list at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Michael attributes his success to good eating, an active childhood and faith.
“My father is a very religious person, and I follow in the same footsteps,” he said. “A lot of it is the grace of God.”
Still, there will probably be a day when Michael Pendergrass needs a new liver.
His father had thought about becoming a living donor for his son, but he admits that he was afraid of the surgical procedure. He had learned about a living liver donor in New York who died during the surgery.
“It instilled in me a little subliminal fear that thwarted my efforts to lose weight,” he said. “Three years went by, and I felt terrible. I had gained weight. I would wake up and hate myself looking in the mirror, knowing Michael might need a liver.”
So when Russ Pendergrass saw Lyla Pendergrass five months pregnant at a family reunion, his mission became clear.
To get some help, Pendergrass called Body for Life, a nutrition and exercise program that he had tried once before.
“It took seeing my daughter-in-law carrying my grandson to break the spell the fear had over me of dying on the operating table,” he said.
His grandson, Adam, is now about 2 months old, and Grandfather couldn’t be more proud.
And the Pendergrass family couldn’t be more proud of little Adam’s grandfather.
Staff writer Elizabeth Aguilera can be reached at 303-820-1372 or eaguilera@denverpost.com.
