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Don Rhoads discusses his liver transplant journey in his office.

Liver Transplant Patient Thriving, Grateful Nearly Four Years Later

Feb. 20, 2026 | Most people would never know from looking at him that Don Rhoads, president and owner of Fleming Electric, is a liver transplant survivor.

He’s at the office every day at 7 a.m., works out five times a week and rides a bike when he can. At 65, he’s also an active member of the 1836 Club, an exclusive club of industry leaders and policymakers based in Little Rock. He’s also a philanthropical benefactor, with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) being one of his beneficiaries.

But on the first Tuesday of every month, Rhoads is also one of several liver transplant survivors who meet at UAMS to support each other. In addition, he regularly appears at UAMS for scheduled ultrasounds, blood tests and other check-ups to ensure that the liver he received nearly four years ago is continuing to function well.

Rhoads said he considers every day a gift. He remembers that when he learned in 2017 that he had a rare liver enzyme that predisposes people to nonalcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, and when he first got on the transplant list in 2021, he figured his life was quickly coming to an end, and he made peace with it.

But then, after three false alarms in which he was summoned to UAMS to receive a liver transplant that was canceled at the last minute, he underwent a liver transplant on March 2, 2022, at the hands of the UAMS liver transplant team, a large multidisciplinary team consisting  of a variety of physician specialties, nurses, pharmacists, technologists and social workers.

When he awoke from a 9 ½-hour surgery that left 72 staples holding him together under the ribcage, he was pleasantly surprised to feel better immediately.

Even before he left the hospital seven days later, Rhoads was helping manage his business by phone. Within a few months, he was driving again and spending more time at the office. Then he started biking again and spending time at the lake.

“It was a year before I started really getting my strength back,” he said recently, adding that he continues to feel stronger with each passing year.

Meanwhile, Rhoads has maintained a normal weight and enjoys spending time with his adult son. He is so grateful for his liver transplant that he treats the transplant nursing staff, physicians and researchers to a meal during Christmas time.

“He has done an excellent job taking care of himself,” said UAMS surgeon Lyle Burdine, M.D., Ph.D., who performed the transplant.

Burdine said that when Rhoads received his new liver, “he was told he might not have made it another five to six months without the transplant. His liver was starting to deteriorate pretty significantly. He was in the window where he was strong enough to tolerate a transplant, but he needed it quickly before the window closed.”

Unlike patients with failing kidneys, Burdine said, “There is no dialysis for liver. If we can’t do a transplant, that’s it.”

Burdine noted that liver transplant patients typically move up the list quicker than kidney transplant patients, simply because there are far more people across the country in need of kidney transplants than liver transplants.

Burdine said the UAMS transplant program generally performs 50 to 60 liver transplants a year, compared with 175-200 kidney transplants in the same period.

He said that’s because Arkansas has a high rate of end-stage kidney disease, with a lot of people on dialysis. However, this follows a national trend. Kidney transplants are more in need nationwide, with about 120,000 people on the list for a kidney transplant at any given time, while only about 25,000-30,000 people actually receive kidney transplants every year.

“About 30% of our liver transplants are due to liver cancer,” Burdine said, noting that “if you can catch it at the right time, that’s a really good treatment for liver cancer.”

He said the number one cause of liver disease is now fatty liver disease, which occurs in some people with diabetes, adding that years ago it was hepatitis C, which is now curable, or cirrhosis of the liver due to alcohol consumption.

In the UAMS liver transplant program, Burdine said, “Our one-year survival after a liver transplant is about 97%.”

The UAMS Liver Transplant Program, which began in 2005, has consistently been ranked high nationally for survival one year after transplant. In 2025, the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) ranked UAMS first in the country for survivability and fourth in the country overall. The UAMS transplant program was also recognized in September by The Joint Commission for improving access to organ transplantation for underserved communities in Arkansas.

More than 660 liver transplants have been performed at UAMS while more than 3,120 kidney transplants have been performed since the UAMS kidney transplant program began in 1964.

The programs constitute the only adult kidney and liver transplant programs in Arkansas, and in 2023 UAMS also became the first hospital in the state to perform kidney-pancreas transplants since the 1990s.

Rhoads, of Benton, still agrees with what he said in 2023: “My experience at UAMS was beyond my wildest dreams. I was expecting the worst when I found out I needed a liver transplant, but the whole experience was fantastic. They had all the answers, quickly put my fears at ease — and gave me my health back. I am eternally grateful.”