CINCINNATI — A liver transplant patient came hundreds of miles to get the surgery and "went green" and now doctors say they need more patients like him.

What You Need To Know

  • Liver transplant patient Mike Vanhoose turned his hair green after he nearly lost his life

  • Vanhoose waited years on a transplant list before he could get the surgery and is using his green hair, the color of Liver Transplant Awareness, to inform people about the illness 

  • Doctors at UC Health Hospital in Cincinnati say they have cleared their waiting list and are looking for more patients who need a transplant

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, Mike Vanhoose hopes the one of him with green hair leads to a thousand more.

“It gets people to ask, you know, ‘Why is your hair green? You’re too old for that’ or something, you know? And I’m like, ‘Well, yeah, but it helps people,’” said Vanhoose. 

He dyed his hair green after something happened that he thought was going to kill him.

“I started swelling, like, just crazily, my mom died when she was 47 of colon cancer, and she swelled up really bad so I went to the doctor and I thought, well, you know, here it goes,” said Vanhoose. 

But it wasn’t cancer. He was diagnosed with a type of liver disease and doctors told him he needed a new liver.

“It kind of threw me back because I was like, I’ve never drank, I’ve never done anything and all of a sudden here I’ve got liver cirrhosis,” said Vanhoose. 

He was put on a waiting list for a new liver, and waited nearly two years at a Kentucky hospital, but just across state lines there was a match.

“We clearly saw how sick Mike was and that even though his numbers said he was here, he actually was much sicker and so we recognized that and were able to find a liver that worked well for him and got him transplanted two months after being listed here,” said Dr. Cutler Quillin, liver transplant surgical director at UC Health Hospital in Cincinnati. 

Quillin said they did close to 200 liver transplants last year and wiped out the wait list.

“We just we’re an aggressive transplant center, so we utilize organs that some other patients, some of the places don’t think that they can use for transplant, we pair the pair the organ up with the recipient when we’re able to,” said Quillin. 

That’s why now, he says they’re trying to find more patients to transplant who are like Vanhoose.

“It wasn’t that I felt sick anymore, it’s like I feel like, oh, wow, I’ve got it, I’m going to have a chance now,” said Vanhoose. 

He’s using his second chance at life talking green, the color for liver transplant awareness.

“It gives me an opening to be able to talk and tell people, I feel like that’s why I’m getting a second chance is because I’m here to spread the word and let people know that there is hope,” said Vanhoose. 

If you or someone you know needs a liver transplant or would like more information about UC’s transplant program, click here.