Organs are too precious to waste, 'J.R. Ewing' says

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Last updated March 28, 2008 10:23 p.m. PT

Organs are too precious to waste, 'J.R. Ewing' says
Actor in town to promote transplants

By HECTOR CASTRO
P-I REPORTER

Larry Hagman, J.R. Ewing himself, spent Wednesday night watching his two granddaughters, ages 13 and 16, play in the unexpected springtime snow that fell in their Capitol Hill neighborhood.

It was a pleasure that would have been denied the actor, most famous for his television roles in "Dallas" and the earlier show, "I Dream of Jeannie," if not for a liver transplant he received 13 years ago.

"I owe the guy my life," Hagman said of the young Latino man whose untimely death in a car crash meant a new liver for the television star.

That brush with death, put off only by the gift of an organ transplant, turned Hagman into a promoter of organ donations. His personal Web site includes a letter asking his fans to fill out an organ donor card.

This week, the 76-year-old actor spent a few days in the Seattle area visiting his daughter and her family, and promoting the work of the Northwest Kidney Centers, which provides dialysis treatment for about 1,300 patients and promotes awareness of kidney disease and available treatments.

Wednesday, the nonprofit agency will offer a seminar on organ donation and transplantation at its newest center, the SeaTac Kidney Center and Pavilion, said spokeswoman Ingrid Goodwin. In May, the agency will host a kidney health fair at the African American Academy in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The goal is to educate people about kidneys, which filter waste from your blood, and the prevalence of kidney disease, which strikes one in nine adults nationally on average, many of them unaware of their condition.

Kidney transplants, either from living donors or cadavers, can be a good option for people with chronic kidney disease.

Over breakfast at CJ's Eatery in Belltown on Thursday morning, Hagman, sporting a long coat and towering Stetson (he says he wore one even before his role as J.R. Ewing) talked about his own experience with organ transplantation.

It was 1995 when he learned that his liver was shot. Until then, Hagman said, he was a heavy drinker, claiming that during the "Dallas" days he went through five bottles of champagne a day.

Hagman went on a waiting list for a transplant and got lucky. It was just 36 days before he was able to get a new liver. In the meantime, he tried to get through days despite his alarmingly low energy level.

"I slept a lot," he said. "A lot."

When word came that a liver was available, Hagman took a helicopter from his ranch in Ojai, Calif., to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, where the transplant was performed.

Almost immediately following the surgery, his health improved.

"I had energy as soon as I woke up," he said.

The experience gave Hagman an appreciation for his health. When the National Kidney Foundation contacted him soon after his surgery asking him to act as a spokesman for them, he readily agreed.

He rarely works with smaller, local agencies, but made an exception for the Northwest Kidney Centers, which pioneered kidney dialysis in 1962 after long-term dialysis was made possible through the work of the late Dr. Belding Scribner of the University of Washington.

Wednesday, Hagman spent the day at the organization's newest center taping public service announcements and visiting patients.

"Just his presence in our dialysis center yesterday was amazing," Goodwin said. "The patients were so excited."

And no wonder. His entourage Thursday may have been limited to a pair of spokeswomen from the Northwest Kidney Centers, but Hagman still exudes the air of a celebrity, with his towering presence and general affability. He even carries faux $10,000 bills, bearing his own image and his own signature, ready to hand to fans.

Now, Hagman is using his celebrity to get people tested for kidney and liver disease and to encourage more people to donate their organs upon death.

"Some people just won't give their organs and I'll never understand why," he said, adding, "Why throw 'em away?"

LEARN MORE

"Spring to Life," a seminar on organ transplant and donation, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the SeaTac Kidney Center, 17900 International Blvd. S.

More information about the seminar or kidney disease can be found at nwkidney.org.

P-I reporter Hector Castro can be reached at 206-448-8334 or hectorcastro@seattlepi.com.

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