Double transplant recipient defied odds

Double transplant recipient defied odds

by Olivia Webb
2 hrs 46 mins ago

A Rockingham man who defied medical odds to become the longest living double transplant recipient in North Carolina history passed away Monday at the age of 47.

Friends and family described the late Steven Travis, a dedicated teacher and avid outdoorsman, as someone who got the most out of life and “always had a good attitude about everything.”

“We could have lost him five years after the surgery,” said Doug Rice of Hamlet, one of Travis’s best friends. “But I thought Steven was going to outlive me with his outlook on life.”

Travis’s nephrologist, Dr. Luiz Nascimento of Hamlet, said Travis lived for 14 years after receiving a pancreatic and renal transplant at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. He had undergone dialysis for four years prior to that.

According to Nascimento, Travis reached out to others who were going through the same difficult situation.

“Steven was kind of like an ambassador for us. He spoke out at dinners, gave health talks to other patients; he was a teacher by education. And he was very charming.

“I always said ‘Steven, you are such a nice young man. Why don’t you get married?’ and he would say ‘I’m too busy, man! I have too much to do!’”

Nascimento said dialysis and transplant patients have to constantly keep track of health supplies and medications. The necessary, life-saving restrictions can be hard for active people like Travis.

“We tell people ‘You’re going to be given a kidney, so you have a responsibility to take care of it,’” said Nascimento. “It’s very difficult to be compliant. You get frustrated. Like it or not, you always ask ‘Why me?’

But Nascimento said nothing could stop Travis from doing what he loved the most.

“He went on a kayak trip while on peritoneal dialysis!” said Nascimento, shaking his head and laughing.

David Travis agreed that his brother didn’t want to be treated as a special case. Though his vision was failing, Steven insisted on driving when they went on a month-long cross country road trip two years ago.

“He wanted to share the responsibilities of the trip. We chose long stretches of desert road for him to drive on; we were on this one highway, and I saw a huge Mack truck about to merge into our lane. I had to think ‘Do I say something, and make Steven mad, or do I not say something?’ so I told him there was a truck coming and of course he said ‘David, I know! I see the truck!’

“He didn’t see it, though,” laughed David. “We would have died if I hadn’t said something.”

Another best friend, Lynn Stogner of Rockingham, said Steven was an example of the old saying “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

“That was just his attitude. He grew up with something (Diabetes) and he learned how to fight it. He was a fighter all his life,” said Stogner. “I knew him and I could see sometimes if he wasn’t feeling well. I’d say ‘Hey Steve, you all right man? And he’d say ‘Nah, Stog, don’t worry. I’m good.’”

According to Steven’s Aunt, Mary Wallace, the young man whose life was saved by someone else’s donation would have “given you the shirt off his back” himself.

“He was very sweet and tender-hearted. He was a wonderful person,” said Wallace. “He just had a struggle in his life. But he handled it better than a lot of people would have.”

Rice said Steven realized his time was short; that’s why he lived life to the fullest.

“He was just a fun-loving, good-hearted person. He loved everybody. There wasn’t one fault with Steve,” Rice said.

“Except maybe that he talked too much,” he laughed.

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