GODFREY - Captain Will Dimitroff and Kaden Conreux have something bit in common - both received life-saving liver transplants in the month of December. So for both Will and Kaden’s families, December and the Christmas season are a time of thanks for the donors and surgeons who enabled them to continue on with life.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Captain Dimitroff learned Kaden was waiting for a liver transplant through social media and the two met this week to share their stories. Will said he and his wife, Dawn, are so thankful for what was essentially a gift of life for him a year ago.
“I feel the best now I have ever felt in my life,” he said. “The liver is essential and if it is isn’t functioning properly your color is off, along with many other problems. My body didn’t process food properly and I was not getting nutrients I needed from liver disease. It has just made a huge difference.”
“My transplant was through an organ donor that passed away,” Will said. “I received it through MidAmerica Transplant, and my wife and I are now volunteers for Mid America Transplant. We do events throughout the St. Louis and Illinois area and sign people up to be donors. I have done speaking engagements to tell them my story and how it changed my life. I wouldn’t have survived without it.”
Will said the transplant now will completely change Kaden’s life, too.
Will is an exercise enthusiast and said he believes that kept him going before things fell completely apart with his liver issues. He plans to do a 350-mile bike ride from St. Louis to Chicago this summer as another example of how he has overcome his liver issues.
Will said the whole experience for him has been “really humbling.” Will is in a high-profile law enforcement position, but until right before the liver transplant, he kept his situation low key.
“When you depend on someone else for your life, it is really humbling,” he said. “I have known for a while I was going to need a transplant in my life; I didn’t know exactly when. I am very thankful to the donor and the donor’s family.”
