A Transplant Walks the Path

By Edwin C. Delz, D.D.S.

[Editor’s Note: Ed Delz is a 3rd kyu student who practices at Florida Aikikai in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Ed started his Aikido training after having received a liver transplant. His courage and determination to practice Aikido, in spite of a serious medical condition, is an inspiration for all of us who are trying to follow the path of Aikido. Photos courtesy of Florida Aikikai.]

Losing my Body

I had defined myself as a life force and a body.
But my life force began to experience
the loss of my body.

My body swelled,
it turned different colors,
it was difficult to move.

It became a mass
with diminished energy.
It could not eat to sustain life
and food made it sick.

It went from a swollen mass
to a mass that began to devour
itself to sustain its life.
It could no longer move freely
only rest and sleep.

How long could it last?
Could it live long enough
for that chance in a million,
the call from Transplant
saying we have a match
and a healthy organ!



Two months after my liver transplant I stopped by Florida Aikikia and spoke with Peter Bernath Sensei. I had seen a video clip on TV about Aikido fifteen years earlier and now I wanted to try this martial art Aikido.

Having finished raising my two children and received my transplant, I had the free time to begin Aikido but I told Peter Sensei I could not fall down. He looked at me perplexed and asked why? I lifted my shirt to show him my Mercedes scar. It is an upside down Mercedes emblem 16 cm up, 16 cm to the left, and 30 cm to the right. It was still red and raw looking. And that is where we started.

Alex, one of my training partners, told me a year later that his comment about me initially was “Who is the dead guy?”

For six months Peter Sensei and I would meet at the dojo twice a week and do the warm-up exercises. I did not perceive it initially, but my body had been dying for years and that exercise practice was my physical rehabilitation. We moved on to irimi, tenkan, and tenshin. As we moved around the mat Peter Sensei was imparting his Aikido philosophy in my mind.

I started rolls from my knees wondering whether my organ replacement, my rerouted plumbing, and my sutures would come apart. Peter Sensei was probably thinking, “Will my insurance cover this if he comes apart?” I did my first class in August 1998, six months after my transplant. All my nages were afraid and gentle except for Alex. He would pound me into the mat with a certain powerful gentleness. We were always being sent to the principal’s office for roughing the uke!

I threw myself (no pun intended) into practice with a passion. My previously dead body strengthened and responded to the physical practice. In August 1999 I tested for 5th kyu and I would be embarrassed to show you the video. In August of 2000 I tested for 4th kyu. “Hooray for suwari wasa, ha, ha, ha.” In January 2002 I tested for 3rd kyu. I continue to kid and ask Penny Bernath Sensei if I can bypass the days on the mat requirement even though I do not know the techniques. I tell her I could die before my Shodan test or I will be so old, I will need a walker to get onto the mat.

What is this art that we practice and submit our bodies to. This gift of Aikido is not just a martial art, it is a gift of O-Sensei’s life. Our Aikido is a physical practice and a metaphor for the spirit and consciousness within us. In “Discovering the Body” by T. K. Chiba, Chiba Sensei writes about the dialogue “between the body and consciousness”, as “a starting point for growth.” My consciousness had been shocked by a call from the transplant unit to get to the hospital ASAP.

That call, a defining moment,
a pivotal point in my life.
My world would change forever
from this day forth.
I would be rejoicing or confessing that evening.
A jump into space with no guarantees.
Goodbye to yesterday and
hello to tomorrow’s whatever.


I thought I was going to the hospital for a liver transplant. I did not know I would experience an emotional epiphany as I lay in that bed, having done perfect ukemi on the table. The physical impact on my body and my reality was like taking a dramatically lousy break fall. As I was watching the sunrise, the emotional impact of knowing that a family was saying goodbye to someone who was near and dear to them -- my organ donor -- shocked my consciousness.

I watched the sunrise
from my window this morning and
I screamed the scream
that you must have screamed
knowing you would not see this sunrise.


I practice Aikido for the benefit to my physical body and how it has improved my health in general and also as a demonstration of the surgical success of vital organ transplantation.

I practice Aikido as a physical release from the side effects of this new emotional paradigm that “I Am” and the side effects of the drugs that keep me alive.

I practice Aikido as a demonstration for every donor family that their gift of life made a difference in the world and that we transplants are capable of any physical challenge. With each breath that I take, I feel the tightness of my scars and I sense my donor’s physical presence in my body. I cry for him everyday. This awesome connection is always present in my thoughts.

How precious is this jewel of life
that outshines the most brilliant star,
the largest diamond, or a room
full of gold?


This art of Aikido is the “breath of life” that we inhale as we practice. We students who practice are a special breed of human being. We take that consciousness that Chiba Sensei describes into our world and our world is better for us being there. “As one follows the path of Aikido, one progressively, with wonder, and joy, encounters the true self, the hidden, “estranged self’, which, with its inexhaustible potential, lies undiscovered by many people who die without knowing that it exists.”

As you walk through your life, know that you are someone special. This new paradigm, organ transplant will enter your life in one form or another. In the ying and yang of life, there is no guarantee where or who in your life will go on a transplant list or who God in his inimitable way will take home with him. Just as O-Sensei gave to us the gift of his life, his Aikido, sign an organ donor card and tell your family of your decision.

In the end, I am just Ed who practices Aikido. I hope to see you on the mat at the Winter Camp in Fort Lauderdale in November.

Note: poem ©Edwin C. Delz Liver Transplant, 1998

Biography

Dr. Edwin C. Delz is a practicing dentist in Pompano Beach, Florida. He contracted Hepatitis C in 1978 during a routine dental procedure via a needle stick from a patient who had recently received blood contaminated with Hepatitis C. In February of 1998, he was transplanted at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Delz is an avid advocate for the Transplant Foundation and the need to increase organ donation. He mentors both Hepatitis and Transplant patients and is a mentor trainer with the San Diego Transplant ORGANization.