Dr. Shaw receives Walter Payton Legacy Award

Bud Shaw, M.D., professor, surgery, received the Game Changer Walter Payton Legacy Award from Curable, an organization dedicated to understanding and curing a rare liver and bile duct disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).

The award was presented July 30 at a gala held in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Club at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

Curable was founded by Lisa Boyette, M.D., Ph.D., a Pittsburgh physician whose brother, Jonathan Boyette, suffers from PSC. The organization was formerly known as Save Jon, Inc.

PSC led to the death of NFL football great Walter Payton in 1999 at the age of 45. Payton played 13 years for the Chicago Bears and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His PSC had progressed too far to allow him to receive a liver transplant.

Dr. Shaw was honored for his outstanding career in organ transplantation. Among his highlights were:

• Building the UNMC/Nebraska Medicine into one of the leading comprehensive organ transplant programs in the country;
• Performing hundreds of transplant surgeries for patients with PSC, including such high-profile patients as James Redford, documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, and son of Robert Redford, in 1993, and Chris LeDoux, country singer-songwriter, in 2000;
• Developing Organ Transplant Tracking Record (OTTR) software to ensure patients received better care following their transplants; and
• Publishing a book in 2015, “Last Night in the OR,” that was a collection of vignettes illustrating his life and time as a surgeon.

In addition to Dr. Shaw, other honorees at the gala included:

• Mike Ditka, legendary NFL player and coach. Ditka coached Payton and has worked to promote new research into new therapies for PSC.
• Cameron and Jared Wohl, who started The Wave Set, an organization dedicated to increasing awareness of the importance of organ donation. Jared Wohl is a soul/blues singer and songwriter who donated part of his liver to his brother, Cameron, in 2014. Cameron had PSC.

James Redford was the keynote speaker at the gala, where he also introduced Dr. Shaw. He is founder and president of The James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness (JRI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about the need for organ and tissue donation through film, educational outreach and the web.

Redford produced two documentaries dealing with organ donation – “The Kindness of Strangers” and “Flow.”