Mantle May Receive New Liver Today Former Slugger Needs Surgery To Win Battle For Survival

A new liver that could save the life of baseball great Mickey Mantle may have been found and a transplant could be done as soon as today.

Jeff Place, an administrative supervisor at Baylor University Medical Center, told The Associated Press late Wednesday night that if the liver is suitable, it would be implanted immediately.

“A possible liver has been found,” Place said. “Nothing has been actually confirmed yet. He remains in stable condition. We are in the process of prepping him for the possibility of surgery, but nothing has been confirmed yet.”

Place said he did not know the source of the liver. More details likely would be available at a previously scheduled 9 a.m. CDT news conference today.

At a news conference earlier Wednesday, doctors said the Hall of Famer needed a new liver because his has been eroded by a small malignant tumor, years of alcohol abuse and a long dormant hepatitis C infection.

Mantle, 63, is severely jaundiced, in pain and too weak to get out of bed at the Baylor University Medical Center. Roy True, Mantle’s lawyer and longtime friend, spoke Wednesday night with the New York Yankees great.

“He was in a lot of pain. He had a real bad day today,” True told the AP. “Up until today, his spirits were real high.”

Doctors had said earlier that Mantle was on a list to receive a liver within three to four weeks. Nationally, the normal wait for a liver transplant is 130 days, but Mantle obtained one of the highest priorities because his condition is serious, transplant surgeon Dr. Robert Goldstein said.

Goldstein said Mantle was in such dire need of a new liver that the former center fielder “will not get out of the hospital without getting a transplant.”