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My sister needed a liver transplant last year after many years of decreasing liver function. Given her age and other factors, they told her to expect to wait th

My sister needed a liver transplant last year after many years of decreasing liver function. Given her age and other factors, they told her to expect to wait three to five years for a deceased donor, and that she likely would not live long enough for that. Of her six siblings, three of us passed the initial screenings to be donors. As we were about to start the more invasive tests, a deceased donor became available and my sister was the only match within the distance they were willing to transport the liver. Five hours later she went into surgery. She was only on the recipient list for two days. Everything went as well as could be expected and, in many ways, she's doing better than she has in decades. It's very complicated to think about the donor. All they told us was that it was an 18-year old who died in a traffic accident. We are all so grateful for the liver, and so sad for the donor's loved ones. Hopefully knowing that the donation saved another life and a part of their loved one lives on gives them some solace. I hope your case goes so well. Good luck!

iamthemonster 2y ago
If you don't mind me asking, what were you and your siblings told regarding the risk level for the donor? I tried googling this and I didn't find anything particularly definitive as the sample sizes were reasonably small
- rented_mule 2y ago
  They said the primary risk was the same infection risk present in any major surgery, but they didn't put numbers on that. It's a large incision, so they said to expect significant scaring. They take half of the donor's liver. They said it will be back to ~80% of its original size in ~6 weeks and full size in about a year. They said to expect a week in the hospital, with significant pain, and a month of recovery nearby - we would have been travelling to have it done near my sister, and they wanted to be able to treat us if there were complications. The hospital covered all medical costs for donors, outside of medical insurance. It sounded like there was very little risk to liver function in the donor after recovery. They said that ongoing liver function should, in fact, be above average, as they wouldn't take a donor unless they had reason to believe it was a completely healthy liver to begin with. In our case, multiple advocates were assigned to each of the potential donors. Those advocates had no contact with my sister, and didn't even know her name or our relationship to her. It was their job to ensure minimal risk to us and to try to make it 100% okay for us to back out of donating. If we backed out or were ruled out medically, or for any other reason, their communication to my sister's team would have been the same, "they are no longer a candidate." Of course, we would be free to communicate whatever we wanted. Overall, they were very picky about selecting living donors. This was a large research hospital that is well known for liver transplants. They said they'd never had a liver donor death (as you said, not a huge sample size) and that it would be highly costly to the program, in terms or ability to attract donors, if they did have one. They said that the living donor should expect to go through a nutrition program run by their doctors to get to their ideal weight, with significant physical training involved. A therapist would also be assigned to the donor. Everything seemed geared to reducing risks to the donor.
  - iamthemonster 2y ago
    Thank you so much for your detailed reply, I really appreciate it!

iamthemonster 2y ago

If you don't mind me asking, what were you and your siblings told regarding the risk level for the donor? I tried googling this and I didn't find anything particularly definitive as the sample sizes were reasonably small

rented_mule 2y ago
They said the primary risk was the same infection risk present in any major surgery, but they didn't put numbers on that. It's a large incision, so they said to expect significant scaring. They take half of the donor's liver. They said it will be back to ~80% of its original size in ~6 weeks and full size in about a year. They said to expect a week in the hospital, with significant pain, and a month of recovery nearby - we would have been travelling to have it done near my sister, and they wanted to be able to treat us if there were complications. The hospital covered all medical costs for donors, outside of medical insurance. It sounded like there was very little risk to liver function in the donor after recovery. They said that ongoing liver function should, in fact, be above average, as they wouldn't take a donor unless they had reason to believe it was a completely healthy liver to begin with. In our case, multiple advocates were assigned to each of the potential donors. Those advocates had no contact with my sister, and didn't even know her name or our relationship to her. It was their job to ensure minimal risk to us and to try to make it 100% okay for us to back out of donating. If we backed out or were ruled out medically, or for any other reason, their communication to my sister's team would have been the same, "they are no longer a candidate." Of course, we would be free to communicate whatever we wanted. Overall, they were very picky about selecting living donors. This was a large research hospital that is well known for liver transplants. They said they'd never had a liver donor death (as you said, not a huge sample size) and that it would be highly costly to the program, in terms or ability to attract donors, if they did have one. They said that the living donor should expect to go through a nutrition program run by their doctors to get to their ideal weight, with significant physical training involved. A therapist would also be assigned to the donor. Everything seemed geared to reducing risks to the donor.
- iamthemonster 2y ago
  Thank you so much for your detailed reply, I really appreciate it!