For Aimee Houghton's birthday May 14, she received a call from her father, the last one she would ever get.

"He'd been taken off the ventilator," said Houghton, whose 57-year-old father, Michael Whatley, died May 22 from complications following a liver transplant. "It was the best birthday I ever had."
It'd taken eight years on the liver transplant waiting list for the call to come. Whatley, an associate pastor at Bethel Assembly of God, was in the hospital and so sick when the call came, he didn't even know he'd gotten a new liver May 9 until the family told him May 14.

"They had to give him quite a lot of blood during the surgery, and he almost didn't make it," Houghton said. "The nurses were saying he used something like 45 units during the surgery. And I know he needed more than 20 units more following the transplant."

Houghton is sharing the family's story of loss to express how grateful they are to donors for the time with their father.

The story is one of several shared by local residents as LifeShare Blood Centers celebrates its 65th anniversary.

Today, an open house will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at LifeShare's Shreveport center, 8910 Linwood Ave.

Advancements in storage and collection procedures now make it possible for the seven LifeShare centers in Louisiana and southeast Texas to process more than 222,000 units of blood products, including red cells, platelets, plasma and whole blood. The first year its doors opened, which was during World War II, 694 units of dried plasma was significant.

"It just shows you how transfusion medicine and the need for blood products has grown," LifeShare spokeswoman Libby Murphy said. "We need about 1,000 units of blood a week right here in Shreveport."

None of the advancements would mean anything without the donors.

And there's no doubt blood donors gave Houghton and her family more time with their father.

Whatley had needed numerous procedures since being diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1994.

"They've always had to give him blood products, the last 10 years had been very hard," said Houghton, who shares the grief of her loss with two siblings and her mother, Donni.

"We are so grateful to people. We know it's hard and it's time-consuming. But for the family of someone who receives, we are so grateful they gave us the chance to fight and hope."

Houghton said her father had about one good day following his transplant. It was the day he found out he'd gotten a new liver.

"He was excited and kept telling my mother all the things they were going to do when he got well," Houghton said. "The new liver did wonderfully, but he was just so sick. We're just accepting that God has a big picture we don't see yet."

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