More than two months after undergoing a liver transplant, Bishop William K. Weigand says his recovery is going well. He’s learning to take life at a slightly slower pace and he’s grateful for the emotional bond he has with the man who gave him new life.

“There’s no question I feel better than I have for a long time, but my energy level is still coming back slowly and I’m still feeling my way,” the bishop said June 2 in an interview with The Herald.

He is working part time now from his home and intends to “be back at full pace” by mid-September or October.

The bishop turned 68 on May 23 and celebrated the 42nd anniversary of his priestly ordination on May 25. He’s been recuperating at home following liver transplant surgery on April 1 at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco, where he received 70 percent of Sacramento firefighter Dan Haverty’s liver.

The liver transplant was needed because Bishop Weigand had suffered from primary sclerosing cholangitis for the past 24 years, which had greatly damaged his liver.

For the first few weeks following their release from the hospital, the bishop and Haverty, 50, assistant chief of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District and a member of Holy Trinity Parish in El Dorado Hills, traveled to the organ transplant center for follow-up visits with doctors.

The bishop’s surgeon, Dr. John Roberts, chief of transplantation at the medical center, said both men are doing well and have recovered as expected.

Because his recovery has gone without complication, Bishop Weigand has been able to forgo weekly visits to the medical center. When he returns for a checkup on June 21, it will be five weeks since his last visit with doctors.

“The doctors have been pleased and even a little surprised that it’s gone so well, with no obstacles or counter-indications of any kind,” he said.

At the end of this month, both men will undergo a special CT scan to measure how much regeneration has taken place in each man’s liver.

“The doctors expect it will be very substantial regeneration — they expect about 90 percent, especially in Dan as the donor,” the bishop said. “The other 10 percent will grow slowly over the following nine months, so within a year they expect full regeneration. It’s pretty amazing, actually.”

For the rest of his life the bishop will need to take some anti-rejection medications and a few precautions because of his liver transplant. But he doesn’t mind when he thinks about how death was a real possibility a few months ago.

“Without Dan’s tremendous gift and without the surgery, there’s no way I would have made it. I didn’t have many options,” he said. “There’s no question I would not have been able to carry on. This is a very large diocese and it’s growing. It would have been unthinkable and not right to stay on without finding a way to improve my health.”

His life will forever be connected to Haverty, who he calls “my brother.”

“It’s been so easy to bond with Dan and his wife, Terri, and his whole family,” he said. “They consider me now part of their family. Dan and I call each other often, to check up on one another. We’ve already made plans to spend part of Thanksgiving together when my family is usually here.”

On a recent Monday evening, the two men met at Goethe Park in Rancho Cordova with their bicycles to take a bike ride together on the American River Parkway.

Haverty, who returned to work at the Metropolitan Fire District on May 16, says he is resuming almost all of his regular activities. “I’m doing quite well — walking for exercise, and I seem to have plenty of stamina and energy,” he told The Herald in an interview.

He cherishes his close friendship with the bishop.

“We talk a couple or more times each week about our recovery, but we also share many other things,” he said.

As a symbol of their friendship, Haverty recently planted two yellow rose bushes in his yard at his home in El Dorado Hills as well as in Bishop Weigand’s yard at his home in Sacramento. The name of the rose is “The Gift of Life.”

He has no regrets about being a living donor.

“When I look back on the last few months, I’m surprised how quickly it’s gone,” Haverty said. “Before the surgery it was foreboding, a big task ahead of us. But with the support of friends, my family, and a belief that our Lord is going to see us through our trials, it’s been one of the most worthwhile things I’ve ever done in my life. I would go back and do it again tomorrow for the bishop if I could.”

While he plans to take a vacation in July and to preside at a few public events in August, Bishop Weigand looks forward to a complete return to work in the fall.

“This experience has changed me, but in a sense my life is going to be much the same,” he said.

“I’m not coasting toward retirement — that’s not my mindset. I feel it’s a new moment for me and for the diocese — a bishop with a new liver and lease on life, and new priorities for our people from our recent diocesan synod. I look forward to a number of more years heading up the diocese in this graced pastoral time we’ve entered.”

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