New liver can't save Elgin man.(News)

0 Comments | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), February, 2006 | by Adkins, Lenore T.

Byline: Lenore T. Adkins Daily Herald Staff Writer During their final conversation Wednesday night, Phylis Huerta told her close friend Victor Gomez to relax and leave himself in the hands of God. And at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Gomez slipped away from his family, friends and loved ones.

Gomez, 51, was the Elgin man who had received a portion of Huerta's liver over the Christmas holiday. He died at UIC Medical Center after struggling with an infection that occurred shortly after his December transplant. For nearly two years, Gomez, a native of Peru, had battled hepatocellular carcinoma, a cancer that originates and stays in the liver. Although doctors had already removed a significant portion of his liver, taking the tumors with it, the organ wouldn't...