July 28, 2005 | Olympic bronze medalist and liver transplant recipient Chris Klug stepped into Gina Bailey’s hospital room, leaving his entourage in the hallway.

Only a day had passed since her liver transplant, and Bailey was sitting beside her bed at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) when the 32-year-old snowboarder shook her hand.

“Congratulations on your transplant,” Klug told a smiling Bailey.

“I feel wonderful,” Bailey said as her surgeon, Youmin Wu, M.D., director of the UAMS Solid Organ Transplant Program and professor of surgery in the UAMS College of Medicine, stood nearby.

In a recent afternoon visit, Klug, the embodiment of a transplant recipient’s  physical potential, briefly told his story to Bailey and two other recovering transplant patients at UAMS.

He learned in 1996 that he had primary schlerosing cholangitis, a rare liver disease whose only cure is a transplant. Four years later his liver began failing rapidly and he was placed on the transplant waiting list. He received a liver in July of 2000.

“I’m coming up on almost five years since my liver transplant,” he told Bailey. “As you probably know, I’m much healthier and much stronger than I ever was before my transplant.”

The snowboarding champ placed sixth in the 1998 Winter Olympics, and after his transplant he won the bronze medal in the 2002 games and last year won the U.S. Nationals title. He is now training for the 2006 Olympics.

Ever since he won the bronze, Klug has traveled the country to promote organ donation and to show transplant recipients that their lives can return to normal.

“I love it,” he said. “It’s very rewarding for me because it enables me to give back a little bit after what they’ve been through.”

On his daylong trip to Little Rock, Klug visited the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency (ARORA), where he met with ARORA donor family members, staff, board members and others in the transplant community. He also visited other local hospitals with organ transplant programs.

Wu said he was inspired by Klug’s appearance at UAMS.

“Chris is living proof that liver transplants not only save lives, but they allow recipients to pursue the most physically active lifestyle they desire,” Wu said.

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