My good friend of more than 30 years passed away on Wed., Aug. 12, 2009. We had dubbed him the “Miracle Man” for good reason. In 1999, he had a liver transplant, but slipped into a coma three times and almost died beforehand. His recovery was miraculous!
A few years later, he developed major heart problems and underwent a quintuple bypass. Another amazing recovery! Next, came the onset of severe diabetes, followed by cancer.
Radiation treatments did not work and chemo was not an option, due to his other difficulties. Yet, he soldiered on and seemed invincible. He went into cardiac arrest while napping and is at peace now. No more suffering! This is for you, Tony – L’Italiano Vero! (and he sure loved his pasta!)
Please consider becoming an organ donor and saving up to 8 other lives. Details HERE.
Thank you!
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Dog Mom and (retired) Canine Innkeeper in suburban Toronto, Canada, known as The Doglady. Former corporate workaholic. Writer, photographer, digital creator. Animal lover, music fanatic, inveterate traveller. Eternal hippie/rockchick. History, literature and cinema buff. Hockey and soccer fan. Dedicated night owl. German/Canadian binational, multilingual. Let me entertain you!
8 thoughts on “TOTO CUTUGNO, L’ITALIANO
Ode to My Friend Tony, The “Miracle Man””
My good friend/neighbor Marge was married to an alcoholic. He got cirrhosis of the liver and went on the liver donor list at University of Michigan Hospital. He was in his early 60s at that time and he quit his job and was tested routinely by the hospital to ensure he had completely given up alcohol – if he had not, he would not receive the liver. Personally, I felt a new liver should go to a person who had liver failure, due to medical issues, not caused by themselves, but I take a hard stance on a lot of things that people don’t agree with me on. Besides, Marge had been routinely beaten up by this man, once he called the police to have her put in jail, claiming she pointed his hunting rifle at him. He was a small man, but still much bigger than her – she was only five feet tall. He once threw her out in the snow when she ticked him off. Anyway, he had the liver transplant and died the next day of a heart attack. I thought of him when reading this post.
Tony wasn’t an alcoholic, but the four of us certainly drank our fair share of alcohol back then. Liver disease did run in his family, though, and his older brother died because of it. In any case, Tony also gave up drinking and smoking for three years before getting the transplant. Unlike your neighbour’s husband (who sounds like a despicable person who got what he deserved), it bought him another 10 years of life.
Yes, not all liver disease comes from alcoholism and my mom/I knew this neighbor was an alcoholic shortly after they moved in. He’d come home from work, park halfway in the middle of the street and you never saw him without a half-glass of dark liquid … knew it wasn’t Coke. Tony was lucky the transplant gave him ten more years … he deserved it, Marge’s husband did not. The day she buried him, she took his cremains to a little creek, dumped them, watched them float and then went to the casino with her friends. 🙂
Debbie, your post about Corrie was sad, but this is equally as sad. Corrie found someone who made her life complete after the disappointing husband #1 and then his life was cut short, peacefully in the end, but after all the medical issues. Life is just not fair at all sometimes. I signed up to be an organ donor in 2011.
Yes, Tony struggled the last 10 years of his life, but he wouldn’t have had those years without the liver transplant. Thank you for reading and also for being an organ donor. ❤️