• September 04, 1995
• Vol. 44
• No. 10

J.R. to the O.R.

After a Month's Wait for a New Liver, Larry Hagman Makes It to the O.R.

IN THE 32 DAYS HE SPENT WAITING for a liver transplant, Larry Hagman, 63, once the linchpin of Dallas, was vigorously on the go. He lifted weights and worked out on a treadmill to steel himself for the surgery that would replace his cancerous liver. And he went fishing in Vancouver, B.C. Last Tuesday afternoon, two weeks after a single session of chemotherapy, the actor was back at his mountaintop home in Ojai, Calif., chatting by phone with his surgeon, Leonard Makowka, director of transplant services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. The doctor proposed another fishing vacation.

Hagman liked the idea, but less than three hours later, Makowka called back. "Cancel the fishing trip," he said. A liver was available. Reportedly taken from a 29-year-old male in San Bernardino, the organ was flown to Cedars-Sinai that night. Hagman, with his wife, Maj, arrived by helicopter.

Just before he started pre-op at 7:30 p.m., a buoyant Hagman phoned his publicist Richard Grant and told him, "Santa Claus came early." But the operation, which began with the theme from Dallas filling the operating room, lasted more than 15 hours, several hours longer than expected. For one thing, Hagman's cirrhosis—the actor used to be a heavy drinker—had done terrible damage. And three hours were spent removing gallstones from his bile duct. (Hagman asked that they be kept so that New York artist Barton Benes could make a commemorative piece.) He was expected to remain hospitalized for two weeks. Long-term chances, said his surgeon, were "excellent," but the two days after the operation would be critical.

Surgery done, "Maj was so relieved," said rock musician Dallas Taylor, who was there to support her. (Taylor, who himself had a liver transplant five years ago, met the actor through Makowka.) "She just smiled."