DAPHNE — It was the seventh call that would give Bobby Scott the liver transplant he needed.

On the night of Aug. 31, 1998, Scott, then 46, fell asleep on the couch after calling in sick to the post office where he worked in New Jersey.

Scott woke up to the sound of his wife Lin trying to call his cell phone, he said.

“I was yelling, trying to let her know that I was on the couch. She didn’t know that I had fallen asleep in front of the television,” Scott said.

The staff at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Penn., had found a liver for him, Scott said.

Scott was diagnosed with advanced liver disease and Hepatitis C on New Year’s Eve in 1997.

He went to the doctor because “it was physically draining to go to work and to have enough energy for anything,” Scott said.

“I was just tired all the time,” Scott said.

Doctors did blood work and the results showed the alanine aminotransferase — ALT — and aspartate aminotransferase — AST — functions were elevated. These are enzymes, that when elevated, show possible damage to the liver.

Scott was given medication to see if the ALT and AST could be stabilized, he said. Medication did not help and he was referred to a specialist.

Dr. Santiago Munoz, a hepatologist at AEMC, reviewed the blood test results and CAT scan and then diagnosed him, according to Scott. Munoz put Scott on the organ transplant list.

“We knew God was going to care of me; people thought we were crazy but we knew if it was the right time, God would be there,” Scott said.

Scott received six prior calls about possible donors, he said.

“There were five times when the livers would initially be okay and then further testing showed they were diseased or damaged,” Scott said.

“The second time, I was the secondary recipient; they didn’t know if the primary recipient would be able to undergo surgery,” Scott said.

“We were getting ready to leave at 10 p.m. but had to wait until 2 a.m. when they cleared the primary recipient,” Scott said.

Scott received his new liver on Sept. 1, 1999 and was discharged from the hospital seven days later.

He has worked at the Daphne Post Office since he and his wife moved to Alabama in 2003.

He travels to Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans every four months to have blood work drawn.

But Scott wouldn’t have it any other way, it seems.

“Life is great; we attribute everything to our faith in God,” Scott said.