Every year in America, hundreds of people die while waiting for a liver transplant. You may not have known this, but the liver is the body’s only organ that can regenerate. While it’s not commonly done, transplant experts say lives can be saved through living liver transplants.Submit
Christer Hiort and Andy Rose think of themselves as blood brothers, since a piece of Andy is now growing inside Christer.
Hiort told Ivanhoe, “A grandbaby coming, there’s a wedding, there’s graduations. And I wasn’t sure that I would be well enough to participate.”
When Andy learned that Christer needed a liver transplant, and he had a compatible blood type, he volunteered to be a living donor.
“My gift to Christer became Christer’s gift to somebody else, because there’s a cadaver delivered someplace that one day would have gone to him that now goes to somebody else” Rose explained.
Only about 250 living liver transplants are done annually in the U.S., compared with 6,000 from people who are deceased.
Giuliano Testa, MD, Abdominal Transplant Surgeon at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas said, “It takes, really a certain kind of personality, dedication, respect for life and love for people.”
A healthy liver begins to regenerate immediately. Still, many potential donors worry about surgical risks and recovery, which can take up to two months.
But with 15,000 people dying every year waiting for an available liver, experts say it’s a viable option.
Dr. Testa told Ivanhoe, “So living donation for the time being is really the only possibility we have to narrow the gap,” a solution that gives those living in limbo, reason to hope.
Because the donor’s liver is functioning up until the time of transplant, experts say the recipient can benefit from Submitimproved long-term outcomes and can have a quicker recovery.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Don Wall, Field Producer; Cortni Spearman, Assistant Producer; Jamison Koczan, Editor and Mikon Haaksman, Videographer.
