OKC Man Gets Second Chance At Life After Liver Transplant At Integris Health

Donate Life Month creates an opportunity to highlight the lifesaving power of organ donation. That's something an Oklahoma City man knows all too well. 

Rudy Erb is thankful for the person who saved his life. He wrote a letter to their family to say thank you.  

“On Dec. 27, 2023, I was the recipient of the generous gift of life your loved one provided,” Rudy Erb wrote. “I cannot begin to understand the depths of sorrow you must be feeling. A part of your loved one lives on in me. I can’t thank you enough for the chance to extend my life.” 

Those sentences, Erb said, were the hardest thing he’s ever written. A decade ago, doctors noticed issues with Erb’s liver. Doctors diagnosed him with a disease called. primary sclerosing cholangitis or PSC. His wife Lissa Erb said last year everything had changed. 

“We didn’t really talk about it very much, but the decline was sad,” she said. 

Erb needed a transplant – and doctors found a match in less than a week. “It was surreal,” Lissa Erb said. “He was so fortunate and blessed.” 

They didn’t know much about the person who gave Rudy the gift of life, but they knew they possessed -- a selfless heart. “Very, very grateful and in awe of what that family had to go through,” Lissa Erb said. 

Erb is back enjoying time with his wife and children shifting gears toward a new horizon. “Enjoy the little things,” Rudy Erb said. “I get to enjoy it for a little bit longer now. For me, I just try to live each day to be worthy of that gift.” 

Thank you can be tough to write down – but Erb said a person can show gratitude by how they live. Erb concluded his letter with a promise he intends to keep. “Thank you again and please know that I will do everything I can to pay this gift forward, respectfully Rudy.” 

Anyone who would like to become an organ donor can visit lifeshareoklahoma.org. Erb became the 109th-liver recipient of a record-breaking 111 at Integris Health’s Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute last year. Erb said he feels great and is ready to make the most of his second chance.