Family and friends welcome home Dr. Amos Lane after liver transplant
PRINCETON — A surprise welcome with signs, noisemakers, balloons and plenty of love greeted a Princeton doctor Friday when he came home after receiving a liver transplant made possible by a coworker’s generosity.
The administration and staff of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital learned late Thursday that Dr. Amos Lane, the director of Emergency Medicine, was being discharged Friday from Duke University Medical Center after receiving a partial liver transplant from Director of Facilities Engineering Matt Adams. Adams came home last week after donating 70 percent of his liver to Lane.
“We’re just super excited,” said WVU Medicine PCH President and CEO Karen Bowling. “One of our ER doctors got a liver transplant and one of our own employees donated. It was a living donor transplant that was done. It’s really amazing when you think about what we can do today and how we can save lives with organ donation. He’s coming home. So he’s been down at Duke University where they did the liver transplant for really over six weeks and today’s his arrival date in Princeton. It’s a surprise. We wanted to welcome him back.”
Family and coworkers gathered at the employee parking lot next door to the Princeton Recreation Center. They were ready with noisemakers, homemade signs and balloons for the doctor’s arrival.
“He’s such a good doctor and such a good human being,” said Leigh Anne Brogan, one of the hospital’s employees. “And his patients love him. The employees love him. He’s just a good person to work with.”
“I have some committee meetings with him and he’s such a valuable asset to this hospital,” added hospital employee Lisa Wood. “For one of our employees to have given him this gift has just overwhelmed all of us. It’s just a wonderful thing.”
Multiple generations of Lane’s family were ready for his homecoming.
“It’s just a blessing,” said his aunt, Ruby Burrell. “It’s a blessing to have him come home. It’s a blessing that people love him. What else can you say?”
Dr. Amos Lane arrived in a van, and while the plan called for him to stay inside it while waiving to his well-wishers, he got out while wearing a mask and was soon hugging his mother and father, Barbara and Mart Lane, and sharing more hugs and fist bumps with more family and friends.
“He sure looks good,” Barbara Lane said as her son visited with other well-wishers. “Its been such a blessing what Matt (Adams) did, I’ll tell you,” Mart Lane added.
Dr. Lane kept smiling as he was welcomed home.
“It’s an amazing feeling, you know, to see people from your community, from your workplace to support you through something like this,” the doctor said. “It’s just amazing. It’s really hard to put into words. It’s emotional. It’s really overwhelming, the compassion that people show.”
Matt Adams was recuperating at home, but Lane took time to express his gratitude.
“I can’t thank him enough,” he said. “He’s like my brother now. We have become great friends through this process and, I mean, he’s given me a second chance at life. Who does that? It takes a special person do to something like that, to put their life on hold, to put their family on hold to help you out. I mean, that comes from God. That can’t come from anybody else.”