Joe Covino and his wife, Lucy, enjoy his new lease on life, thanks to a new liver he received late last year. He says they are looking forward to traveling again and making new memories.
UNION, NJ — Joe Covino was living a great life.
He was living in Union, happily married. He and his wife, Lucy, loved to eat and loved to travel. He also worked for NJ Organ and Tissue Transplant Network, which he found super ironic. “My whole life has been in clinical research,” he said. “I wound up needing a liver transplant.”
Covino explained that people must think he had been an alcoholic. But he had a rare autoimmune disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis that attacks the bile ducts and ultimately leads to liver failure.
When he was first diagnosed in 2015, he became yellow, which is called jaundice. “I was itching. You are itching all over your body. You lose weight. You can’t sleep. You can’t eat.”
Originally, he was told he had a reaction to a drug he was taking to control cholesterol. “That was a misdiagnosis,” he said.
It was Dr. Scott Digiacomo at Digiacomo Medical Associates, in Union, which got Covino in the right direction, suggesting he may have PSC. “It was him that encouraged me to go on the liver transplant list,” Covino said.
He then tried a new drug for the itching, and it worked. But he still had a poor quality of life. “I’d get really tired. Bad fevers and chills. I didn’t have a high enough score to get listed for a liver transplant.
Last year, Covino celebrated his 60th birthday in Paris with his twin sister. He became confused and started drooling. “My brain wasn’t getting enough salt because of my liver,” he said. “You need a liver to live a healthy life. I really fell apart.”
He had to take an emergency flight home.
“I’m Roman Catholic and I believe in miracles,” Covino said.
Within a month, a woman in Pennsylvania died and donated all her organs. “I got her liver,” he said. “It was just amazing. I am so grateful to people who donate. This woman saved my life.”
The 10-hour surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in November gave Covino a life. “People don’t get a second chance at life like I did,” he said. “It’s amazing. I got to celebrate Christmas with my twin sister. That could have been the Christmas I never had. My dad is 94. I’m getting to spend time with my dad when he really needs me.”
Being chronically ill for so long, it became Covino’s “norm.” He said, “Now that I have a new liver, I forgot what it was like to feel healthy. To truly live you have to be healthy.”
Covino and his wife, Lucy, a nurse at Hackensack University Medical Center, are looking forward to traveling again and making new memories. Covino also hopes to connect with his donor’s family one day, to express his heartfelt gratitude directly. For now, he’s focused on sharing his story to raise awareness and encourage others to register as organ and tissue donors.
To learn more about organ donation, get involved and join the National Donate Life Registry, visit www.NJSharingNetwork.org.
Photo Courtesy of NJ Sharing Network
