California News : Man Gets New Heart--and Stays Married

Jeff Litoff not only got a new heart, he gets to keep his wife as well.

A healthy donor heart was transplanted into Litoff’s body early Tuesday morning at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Doctors say he is doing well and has a good chance at recovery from the four-hour operation.

Three weeks ago the plight of the 50-year-old appliance repairman from Newbury Park caught public attention when he and his wife, Rosemarie, said they were considering divorce as a means of solving a medical dilemma.

Litoff needed a heart transplant and the couple could not afford the operation and associated medical expenses, which could cost as much as $200,000. As a happily married couple, they weren’t poor enough to qualify for Medi-Cal, but as a divorced man, Jeff Litoff could declare himself indigent and get the benefits.

The Litoffs were saved from divorce by the Tennessee-based Organ Transplant Fund, which agreed to guarantee payment of the UCLA bill based on the nonprofit group’s faith that the couple can raise the money.

Gary McMahan, the national director of the Organ Transplant Fund, said the group agreed to guarantee payment after a fund-raising coordinator came to an organizational meeting in Newbury Park and saw that the Litoffs had already rallied 170 people to help them.

“When we get that kind of a turnout, we know it is going to be successful,” McMahan said.

Because the group has worked with UCLA in the past, McMahan said it was able to promise payment of the $43,000 deposit on the operation, and the hospital put Litoff on the list for transplants.

The couple got their first call to come in last week, and Litoff was on the operating table before doctors discovered that the potential donor heart showed some signs of disease. Back the Litoffs went to Newbury Park.

The second call came late Monday night.

“They called us at 11 on Monday night and said, ‘We have a heart for you,’ ” Rosemarie Litoff said. “So we tore down to UCLA.”

By 5 a.m. Tuesday the donor heart--that of a 27-year-old woman who had died from a head injury--had been declared in excellent condition and Litoff was in surgery.

“We found his own heart was very dilated and very weakened,” said surgeon Dr. Hillel Laks. “But the donor heart functioned extremely well.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Rosemarie Litoff said her husband was able to speak a little--and smile a lot--and had even been up and moving around his room.

“He is tired and he fades in and out,” she said. “But he is very glad it’s over and is looking forward to dancing and biking and hiking and all the things he likes to do.”

For the next week, Laks said doctors will be watching Litoff for any infection or signs that his body is rejecting the new heart. On the seventh day after the procedure, doctors will biopsy the heart to check for rejection. If that goes well, Litoff can go home.

Although Laks was pleased with the results of the surgery, he had one cautionary note: Most rejections occur after the first week, so Litoff will have to be carefully monitored for months to come.

Rosemarie Litoff was jubilant Wednesday as she contemplated a future with her husband. But she is also bitter about having been caught in a trap that had her ready to divorce her husband to save his life.

“We are not the only ones in this situation,” she said. “I know we can multiply our case by the thousands. It just shows how silly our system is. It is totally ludicrous when health care takes a back seat to other things.

“We are going to make this happen,” she added. “We are going to pay off this bill.”

The couple’s income has shrunk in recent years because Jeff Litoff’s condition has left him unable to work much and his wife lost her job at a mail-order company because of downsizing. They also lost their benefits. A private insurer that agreed to coverage will only pay $50,000 a year for costs.

Provided there are no complications, Laks said the bill for the surgery could be as low as $65,000 to $75,000. But if Litoff’s body rejects the heart, costs would skyrocket. Medication to continue to fight infection will cost $2,000 a month for the year after the operation, and $1,000 a month after that.

The couple has raised about $15,000, and McMahan said he expects fund-raising efforts, including pancake breakfasts, silent auctions and square dances to start paying off.