Liver Transplant Survivor Wins Gold, Silver at Transplant Games

For four-and-a-half years, Bonnie Farbstein prayed for her life, wondering whether she'd succumb to the autoimmune disease that was slowly destroying her liver before a suitable transplant became available.

Her health deteriorated, she was fatigued and her body filled with fluid. Farbstein dwelled on the fact that 18 Americans die waiting for a life-saving transplant each day.

Would she be one of them?

“I had a disease that could be fixed with a transplant. That was the good part," said Farbstein, a Fair Lawn resident who, in 2002, was diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis, a disease with no known cure. "But would that gift ever come? You pray that you will get your turn, but there are no guarantees. And I was getting sicker and sicker each week.”

Then on May 4, 2007, Farbstein got the call that would change her life. She learned from her surgeon that she would be receiving a liver from an anonymous donor, a 17-year-old girl who had died in a car crash and whose parents had decided to donate her organs.

“I went home May 10 and woke up in my own bed on May 11, which is my birthday," she said. "To say that I got the gift of life is a very literal statement. I was not sure that I would see another birthday."

Just five years later, Farbstein, now 63, is a four-time Transplant Games gold medalist and counting.

In 2010, her first appearance at the games, she took gold in all three of the events she entered -- table tennis, women's singles tennis and women's doubles tennis.

"I played each of my events with enthusiasm and intensity and I was thrilled and surprised to have won 3 gold medals," Farbstein wrote in a blog post. "However, while I was standing on the podium and my husband was placing the first medal around my neck, I knew in my heart the experience was not about winning or losing. It was about being healthy once again, honoring the special gifts we received and showing the world that transplantation works!"

Farbstein has added another gold and a silver medal to her collection over the past few days while competing at the 2012 Transplant Games in Grand Rapids, Mich. Her gold came in women's singles tennis, her silver in table tennis. She's yet to compete in the women's doubles tennis event, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Farbstein's athletic achievements are symbolic of her renewed life.

At one point, while waiting for a new liver, she thought she'd never play tennis again and almost gave away her racquet. Today, Farbstein is a star member of Team Liberty, a program of the NJ Sharing Network Foundation, made up of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut athletes who have been touched by organ and tissue donation and who competed in this year's Transplant Games.

Held every two years, the Transplant Games, a multi-sport festival event to promote the need for organ and tissue donation, is open to transplant athletes of any age. Featured events include badminton, basketball, bowling, cycling, golf, racquetball, swimming, table tennis, tennis, track & field, volleyball and a 5K run.

--

Follow Fair Lawn Patch on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to receive our daily newsletter in your inbox each morning