Considering Liver Donation

[Larouquine]

I’ve been doing some thinking about donating a piece of my liver to a stranger. My husband is a doctor and I’m changing careers and going into med school next year; I understand the medical details well. Has anyone else done a LIVER donation to someone they don’t know?

I wanted to write out some of my thoughts, to people who might understand them, and see what this community thinks of my thought process and if you have any input.

I’m thinking of doing this once the pandemic calms down. It’s been a hideous year for everyone, people are dying all over the world, and I lost my father a few months ago. He happened to be placed in a transplant ICU when he came into the hospital, because they were running out of COVID negative corners of the hospital to place people in. I spent sixteen hours a day sitting with him for several days and talked to transplant coordinators because he was, ironically, a pretty good candidate for a donor. It didn’t work out, for very minor and insignificant details, (it was pretty interesting and I can go into that if anyone wants to know) and the intensive care physician, the donor coordinator and I were all incredibly frustrated.
I want to do something positive after all of this hell that my society and my family and my country have gone through. I talked to the patients in the TICU who were recovering from successful transplants, and would like to accomplish that miracle for one of them. As a future physician I think I feel even more strongly about it.
Since I’m basically quarantining myself and studying for the MCAT and learning pharmacology and pathophysiology to get a head start when I arrive at my med school, I don’t have any constraints on my time to get in the way. And obviously I’ll be taken excellent care of post-op by my husband. We live right near OSU, where they have a living donor transplant program, so I’ll be in the area of my recipient if they find me one close by.

What am I not thinking of that I should? Anything else I ought to ask myself? And does anyone know about liver donation with a live donor who has thoughts to share?

[Michael]

Here are a few suggestions:

• If you have a Facebook account, consider posting your question in our Facebook group. We have a lot more visitors there than we do here so you're more likely to get a response. https://www.facebook.com/groups/livingorgandonors/
• Read through the educational information on this site by clicking on "Liver" in the menu above or clicking here: https://livingdonorsonline.org/liver/
• Read through the experiences other living liver donors have shared in the "Donor Experiences" section of the web site. You can click "Experiences" above or click here: https://livingdonorsonline.org/donor-experiences/liver-donation-experiences/
• Request a Living Donor Buddy who can share his or her experiences and guide you through the process. You can click "Buddies" above or click here: https://livingdonorsonline.org/living-donor-buddies/living-donor-buddies-user-agreement/

Please let us know what else would be helpful. Best of luck on your journey!

[Fr Pat]

I very much agree with Michael's suggestions. The FaceBook pages of "Living Organ Donors Support Group" and "Living Donors on Line" get more participants these days than does the web-site. I know that several people who donated a liver-lobe to a stranger post there. There are also several donors who donated a kidney and then later donated a liver-lobe as well.