How liver transplant patient Robert Manning went from carefree to fighting for his life in a coma

Rob Manning owes his life to one word and to the family who uttered it as he lay helpless in a coma and near death.

The word was ‘yes’, which is why Rob received a new liver from a fellow patient at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney late last year.

“I extend my sincere and loving ‘thank you’ to the family of my liver donor, I will respect the gift I have been given,” the former telco director said.

“I wake up every day grateful to be alive. I am eternally grateful to that family for saying ‘yes’.’

It was a life-saving miracle in a number of ways.

“After catastrophic liver failure, I needed everything to go well, and miraculously it happened,” said Rob, 55.

‘I am A-plus positive blood type and the liver was type O (the universal donor type).

‘An organ donor has to die in a certain way. They must be on a ventilator or in an emergency department.

“When I was in ICU, it could very well be the man next to me who was my donor — I don’t know.”

After a blackout on December 19, the next memory Robert has is of January 2, when he called his wife from the hospital

Rob was alive thanks to the epic flight his wife Claire made to take him to the hospital in the eastern suburbs of Sydney from the couple’s home on the Central Coast.

Claire had returned from a shopping trip on December 19 to find Rob unclothed and disoriented.

“I stood naked in the doorway and couldn’t put on my pants and shoes,” Rob said.

‘She said, ‘Are you okay?’

“I said, ‘I don’t know. I feel weird.’

‘I had the feeling that the senses were not working. I had no balance and couldn’t put the pants on.’

Robert and wife Claire (pictured left) had no idea when they took a joyride in their son’s convertible near Sydney in March last year that their lives were about to take a dramatic turn

Claire put Rob in the car and made the 100km sprint to the RPA, which she managed to do in 90 minutes without being fined.

Rob was harassed in the hospital parking lot due to Covid restrictions.

“I was shivering, although the temperature was about 28 degrees, but I was very cold,” said Robert.

“If it wasn’t for her (Claire) I would probably have been treated like any other patient.

She told them, ‘There are people in there who know what’s going on’ – she had called them down on the way.

While in a coma, Robert was on dialysis to keep his liver and kidneys functioning

“So they put me through. It was 3:30 PM or 4:00 PM when they drove me through the door, and by 5:00 PM I was in intensive care on a ventilator.’

Entering the hospital in a wheelchair is the last memory Rob has until he woke up on January 2.

Because Rob’s kidneys and liver failed, he had a 12-day deadline for dialysis before the damage became irreparable.

“There was probably a very good chance I wouldn’t have lasted the first week of January,” Robert said.

“By the 12th day I would have had the tests to say, ‘Is he here, is he coming back?’

When Claire found Robert at their Central Coast home on December 19, he was naked and delirious

On December 29, Claire Roberts went to pick up his phone and also got his wedding ring, Medicare card and other belongings.

Rob was close to death, which Claire learned when the hospital called her on December 30.

“We have to operate because he is deteriorating,” she was told.

“We have to get him a liver. We step up every attempt to find a match.”

An hour and a half later the phone rang again.

“We have found a match, we are preparing him for surgery,” the hospital said.

When Claire picked up Rob’s personal belongings from Sydney RPA hospital, it felt like he was already dead

Robert discovered in July last year that he had end-stage liver disease due to an autoimmune disease, which also affected his heart and kidneys.

Finding that out was also a bit of luck, as Rob barely spent a moment in his busy life as a manager.

“I didn’t feel sick at all,” he said.

‘My wife had often said to me: ‘you have to go to the doctor’.

I just said, “I don’t like doctors. I’m fine. If I get sick, I go, but I’ve never been sick.”

Robert points to a Facebook photo taken around that time that shows him with a carefree grin as he and Claire joyride in his son’s convertible.

“So you go from Friday where I have a picture of me in my son’s Mazda MX 5 driving with the roof down, smiling and happy — to Monday when I was in the hospital for two weeks,” he said.

Rob has become a very active advocate for donor awareness and he has also raised money for transplant charities

“The hardest thing was accepting that I was sick because I thought, ‘I don’t feel sick’.

“I owe my life to my wife for insisting I go to the doctor.”

Robert spent two weeks at North Shore Hospital, and the next five months underwent two heart surgeries and numerous tests.

In early December, he went back to the hospital for what he called a bit of recovery work “to keep him going” until a liver transplant could be scheduled for April/May of this year.

He left the hospital while the medical staff told him his blood samples were fine.

“They were happy to say ‘go enjoy Christmas’ and we’ll see you at the end of January,” said Robert.

‘In the 36 hours after leaving the hospital, everything just stopped.

“I came home and had catastrophic organ failure.”

Only about a third of Australians are registered organ donors, but relatives are still required to give consent.

Robert calls on people to talk about organ donation before the decision has to be made.

“It’s much easier to have this conversation around a barbecue, about what you want when you die, than to be confronted in an emergency room with ‘do you allow this?’,” he said.

Robert says he feels years younger despite his unwellness since he had his liver transplant

“Ten or 11 percent of the next of kin say no – one in ten.

‘If the dying person is not a registered donor, that number rises to 60 percent.

“Nationally, the consent rate is 56 percent, so 44 percent of Australians say no to organ donation.”

Just one organ donor can help up to 40 people.

Rob now works full-time as an advocate and fundraiser for organ donor groups.

He says his new liver is working extremely well, which is a relief because organ rejection is a major risk for any transplant patient.

I have felt fitter and stronger than in 30 years,” he said.

‘You tend to lead a more conscious life.

“In 2021 came the realization that I was not bulletproof or immortal.

“The sun rises and sets and I want to see as many as possible.”

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