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Step 1
Consider donating a portion of your liver to a loved one in need if you're the parent, sibling, adult child or an extended family member.
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Step 2
Know that if you're not related by blood but are emotionally attached to someone who needs a liver, excellent donor-recipient matches can still be made with adopted family members, spouses or life-long friends.
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Step 3
Evaluate your health status. If you have high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney problems, hepatitis or AIDS, or if you are (or have been) an alcoholic and/or drug addict, you'll probably be ineligible to donate your liver.
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Step 4
Volunteer to have a blood test. You don't necessarily have to have the same blood type as your recipient, but you do need to have a compatible type.
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Step 5
Undergo a complete physical, including tissue typing, antibody screening, urine tests, EKG and psychological evaluation.
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Step 6
Arrive at the hospital, along with the liver recipient, early in the morning when the donor's surgery begins first.
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Step 7
Be prepped and readied for the operating room. An intravenous (IV) tube will be started, and you'll be put to sleep. You'll wake up in the recovery room and be moved to a surgical intensive care unit overnight.
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Step 8
Expect to stay in the hospital one week and to be fully recovered after four to six weeks.
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Step 9
Expect your liver to regenerate back to its normal size within two to three months. New blood vessels will also develop.
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Step 10
Plan to return to work within four weeks if you have a desk job and eight weeks if you do more strenuous work.
Comments
lylliarnzmami said
on 6/5/2009 ops its lyllibug@windowslive.com sorry
lylliarnzmami said
on 6/5/2009 Help!My stepdad has always been stuborn about going to the dr's. Now he has left it so long and put it off he has found out he may need a liver transplant.Hes the rock in our family and he has always been the father figure in my life. I feel so helpless and my world is spinning out of control. I keep saying i want to help and donate some of my liver but i have past problems with alcohol and drugs. im way past that now but my heart is breaking as i now feel so guilty for never listening to his wisdom and now i may not be able to share all the joy of getting married etc with him.Ive ben told he'll go on a waiting list for a transplant but ive also been told that i might as well wait for pigs to fly before he gets one!!!Please if anybody as any info or advice on what i should do please email melyllibug@windowslive.comcheersA.B :)
paulgatta said
on 3/13/2009 healthy liver, blood type O , want to donate pice of liver to person who will pay for time, pain and suffering, travel and medical bills. I'm white 26 year old male.I live in Tampa Florida You can contact me at....paulgatta@msn.com ......make offer
veinasian said
on 12/25/2008 http://www.veinasian.com/otago-medical-school-blog/liver-donor/
Learn the mind of a concurrent liver donor. Surgery is scheduled early January if everything in the examination yesterday was a match.
If there's anything you want to know from a first-person point of view, ask away there.
Anonymous said
on 12/13/2005 My nephew had meningitis, which developed into major liver problems when he was two weeks old. There are not enough cadaver donors to meet the need for liver transplants. My nephew's liver healed on its own, but we were all willing to be a living donor. Saving my nephew's life was a lot more important to us than any discomfort that we would have had from giving part of our liver.