Student in need of new liver staying positive

Brian Foster Arizona Daily Wildcat Nate Goldwater, a 22-year-old media arts junior, calls out his shot at his apartment. Goldwater has a liver disease and needs a transplant to survive. Donations for his transplant can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank location.

Goldwater, a media arts junior, has a combination of primary sclerosing cholangitis and ulcerative colitis - diseases that cause the liver to inflame and close down.

Young people are rarely found to have the disease. It is commonly found in 65-year-old men who spend their lives drinking, Goldwater said.

He was diagnosed with the disease when he was 16, and now needs a liver transplant to survive.

But on the outside, Goldwater appears healthy, and that's part of his problem.

"You can't tell Nate has a disease by looking at him, so he is towards the bottom of the (transplant waiting) list," said Goldwater's mother, Nancy Reed.

Goldwater, who is registered with the Children's Organ Transplant Organization, said a new liver could be available for him as soon as eight months from now.

His mother said 14 to 18 months is a better estimate.

Because Goldwater is "healthy" and has a couple of months - not weeks - left before his liver fails, he will be passed over for early transplants.

Goldwater is on is the United Network of Organ Sharing list. About 70 people on the list, who share his blood type, are registered through the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

The transplant organization, Goldwater said, will help him locate a liver and help his family pay initial costs if they cannot afford it.

Although his insurance will foot $500,000 of the transplant bill, Goldwater's family in Phoenix, which has been fund raising the past year, will be forced to pay the remaining $125,000 of the $625,000 total tab.

Reed first contacted the transplant organization and organized most of the fund raising. The Phoenix community has also embraced Goldwater's cause - raffles and benefits are being held in his name.

"When it comes down to it, it's sad to say, but I'll get the liver over someone that can't pay for it," Goldwater said.

Still, there are several strikes against him.

Because Goldwater's blood type is O-positive - the most common type for patients waiting to get transplants - it is harder for him to secure a liver.

Goldwater's doctors also worry that because he is so young, there is a greater chance that even if the transplant is successful, he will need another one down the line.

"Something that isn't yours put into your body can only work for so long," Goldwater said.

He said because his mother has been strong since the diagnosis he has been able to maintain a positive attitude.

"I have never seen my mom cry, and I know she doesn't want me to get down on myself," Goldwater said.

But Reed said she does cry.

"I just don't do it in front of Nate. He is always making sure that I am going to be all right and I tell him not to worry about it. This is the way our family operates," she said.

"I think the hardest part is that he looks so healthy and that we know eventually one day suddenly everything is going to start to decline," said Brian Goldwater, his 24-year-old brother.

Nate Goldwater, who plays intramural floor hockey and softball at the UA, is president of Last Minute, an organization that raises funds for intramural teams that want to travel to tournaments.

Unlike most college students, he can't drink at all, but works as a bouncer at O'Malley's On Fourth.

"The boss knows I'm never going to skim off the top," Nate Goldwater joked.

Donations can be made for Goldwater at any Wells Fargo Bank location. Checks should be made out to "COTA for Nate" with account number 62221848237 in the memo space. There are also donation canisters at all UA sorority houses.