Transplant Center

Patient Testimonials

Double Transplant Survivor Completes Triathlon

Rick Bounds Finishing Triathlon

In July 2007, Rick Bounds underwent a double-organ transplant. It’s hard to believe that less than a year later, he would compete in a triathlon, complete with swimming, running and biking.

But that’s what the 53-year-old Essex man who underwent a liver and kidney transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center did on May 31, when he participated in the Pocomoke City Triathlon at the Lower Shore Family YMCA Branch in Pocomoke City, Maryland. He completed the triathlon in two hours and 32 minutes, and in that time he swam ½ mile in 17 minutes, biked 14 miles under an hour and walked for 3.5 miles.

Bounds used the triathlon as a fundraising opportunity for the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Transplant Program. He says that since he has been given a second chance at life, he wanted to give back.

“What better way is there to give back to the Medical Center? When I saw the efforts the team put into getting me well and the chances this hospital and the doctors have given me, I had to the do same, or more,” Bounds said. “The whole message is to donate life.”

The fundraiser associated with the triathlon was a part of that. Bounds developed a T-shirt with the theme Donate Life, which he gave away for a minimum donation of $20. In the end he sold 200 T-shirts and raised $5,300, with all proceeds from sales going to the UMMC Transplant Program’s support group.

Bounds began training for the triathlon in March, by working out five days a week. He said he was in pretty good shape considering what he has been through. For example, when he started out swimming, he could only complete 50 meters. He then took some personal swimming lessons and learned how to swim efficiently. Now he can swim 1,200 meters without becoming exhausted.

That’s a long way to come from someone who was gravely ill when he first came to the Medical Center in July 2007. Tests indicated that he had three months to live at most. He was diagnosed with NASH (Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis -- a type of liver disease), and was put at the top of the transplant list because he was so sick and needed two organs --- a liver and a kidney.

His transplant surgeon, Rolf Barth, M.D. [assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine], gave him only a 50-50 chance of surviving the surgery. “Dr. Barth said ‘you’ve got an uphill climb,’ ” recalled Bounds. But on July 21, 2007, both organs were transplanted successfully during a 12-hour procedure. Of the doctors and the transplant team, Bounds said, “Their attention to detail and their compassion was beyond reproach.”

Now he recommends the University of Maryland Medical Center to everyone he knows, and appreciates the close relationship he has developed with his doctors and nurses.

“I tell everybody to go to University of Maryland. People need to know about this hospital and that’s why I ran in this race. I was so fortunate that I was able to come here and develop a personal relationship with the doctors. I have an outstanding relationship with every one of them. They are just very compassionate,” he says. “I want people to know that the University of Maryland is on the cutting edge.”

Completing the Race

Rick Bounds Hugging Dorothy

Bounds successfully completed the race with the support of many friends and spectators. “There were 40 people in green Donate Life shirts. Over 100 people were waiting at the finish line to cheer me on.”

The wife of Bounds’ donor, Dorothy, attended the race with her daughter. As he recalls, “The most moving part was hugging the donor’s wife Dorothy while in her arms she had a picture of her late husband. She was in tears for the whole race. We only met two days before the race.”

Now, he still keeps in shape by lifting weights, swimming, doing an 11-mile bike ride at least three times a week, and walking on the treadmill.

In the end, Bounds said the race was “the most gratifying thing that I’ve ever done. Some people told me I couldn’t do it, but I set my mind to it, and I did it.”

A summary of Bounds’ time at the University of Maryland Medical Center is chronicled with text and photos on his Web site at: www.dickietopknife.com

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This page was last updated on: July 31, 2008.