I’ve always had the box checked on my driver’s license to indicate I’m an organ donor. However, it wasn’t until the fall of 2021 that I realized there was an additional demographic of organ donation available: being a living organ donor.
While competing at a national pageant in 2021, I noticed a fellow contestant was distraught with hopelessness and worry. Through her tears, she detailed how her friend’s health was rapidly declining, and his only hope was finding a kidney donor. Since I knew from my military service my blood type was O+, I recognized I was a universal donor. That moment was one I’ll never forget, and it weighed on my heart for many months.
Then in January 2022, I read an advertisement about Donor Outreach for Veterans (DOVE) in the Military Times magazine, and that planted the seed for the rest of what was to come. I contacted DOVE to see if I might be a good candidate for kidney donation. After completing my intake virtually, my candidate file was then forwarded over to the living donor transplant team at Mount Sinai in New York City. I went through extensive processing and medical testing, more than I had ever encountered in my entire life – including when I served in the military!
In April 2022, I received the call from my transplant nurse that I had been accepted as a donor. On 25 May 2022, I was honored to donate my left kidney to a fellow veteran. It was a chain donation that allowed additional people to receive and donate. Furthermore, our chain donation was the first in the Department of Veterans Affairs history, which set a tremendous precedent for future living donations at VA medical facilities!
Seeing the positive health impacts of my donation on the recipient’s life was a tremendous realization of how important living organ donation truly is. I am fortunate to have met my recipient, and his thriving second chance at life is forever etched in my heart and mind.
The following year, in March 2023, I was fortunate to be a part of a team of fellow donors, recipients, medical professionals, and other supporters on a journey to summit Mount Kilimanjaro on World Kidney Day. During that adventure, my path crossed with others who are living liver donors. We talked about their journey and what an incredible difference it made to those waiting on the liver transplant list. I quickly learned recipients with liver issues don’t have the same access to healthcare options as those with kidney disease. While dialysis is an option for kidney support until transplant, liver disease patients have two options: medication (which is temporary) or waiting for a liver donor.
After learning how limited the options are for liver transplant patients, I knew I was being called again to be a living donor. I also recognized how much more invasive liver donation surgery would be. After all, I was only familiar with the small incisions I had from kidney donation. After lots of prayer and talking to my husband and family about my decision, I knew what I needed to do. I contacted John Hopkins, and eventually had an intake with the liver donor team. Because I was already a known kidney donor, the medical processing and testing went much quicker. I was still hopeful, but not certain, I would be a great liver donor candidate.
After what felt like forever of waiting for the call, my donor nurse contacted me with the great news that I was a perfect candidate for donation. On 30 April 2024, I donated 40% of my liver to an anonymous recipient. Although I haven’t had the opportunity to meet my recipient, I pray they are doing well and are absolutely living their very best life!
Even if I never meet the liver recipient, or if I hadn’t meet my kidney recipient, I would go through this process over again to help save someone’s life. There’s no words to describe the feeling of the process, and the gratitude I have for finding purpose in becoming a dual organ donor. My professional life is rooted in social work, and as a social worker, I’m drawn to wanting to help others. The path of becoming a dual living organ donor has sent me on a path I never anticipated or could’ve expected. I’m rewarded daily knowing two peoples’ lives are forever changed for the better.
I’m also excited to use my personal experience in my social work doctoral program as a way to focus on longevity of health for both the recipient and donor. It’s important work that’s never been extensively researched within my field. I have a unique opportunity to draw upon my journey, network, and community to enhance the living organ donation space for both donors and recipients. I’m excited for the future of living organ donation, and I’m dedicated to reducing the number of transplant recipients on the waiting list. Until the numbers are at zero, we will always have work to do!
