Eric DePopas

This day was one of the best of my professional career. We talked, texted, or did a procedure weekly for 2 1/2 years. Over this time, he underwent: 176 paracentesis 2 TACE 1 port placement 1 TIPS and 2 portal thrombectomy By the end of the first year, I had lost all objectivity. He had become like family. Heck, some weeks I saw him more than my own family. My partners and I and our entire #iRad staff had become obsessed with getting him to transplant. My kids even knew the story and asked about him by name. He was admitted exactly 2 weeks prior to this photo in liver failure with encephalopathy - we emergently transferred to our regional transplant center. After 11 hours of surgery and only 11 days inpatient recovery he convinced the transplant surgery team to let him finish his recovery at home. And that very day he came walking into our clinic. I share this story (with permission) to remind those of us who are out in the community practicing interventional oncology, that we have a tremendous opportunity to impact the lives of our patients with #LiverCancer. And that that getting emotionally invested in your patients is not something to be avoided. Keep fighting and working on behalf of your patients. Wins like this don’t come easy, but they are incredible when they do.