Be a Liver Donor
Donating a portion of your liver to a person who desperately needs a liver transplant is one of the single most unselfish acts a person can make. Because the surgery isn't being performed under emergency and/or extreme conditions, the success rate of transplants from living donors is high.
Instructions
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.
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.
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.
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.
5. Undergo a complete physical, including tissue typing, antibody screening, urine tests, EKG and psychological evaluation.
6. Arrive at the hospital, along with the liver recipient, early in the morning when the donor's surgery begins first.
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.
8. Expect to stay in the hospital one week and to be fully recovered after four to six weeks.
9. Expect your liver to regenerate back to its normal size within two to three months. New blood vessels will also develop.
10. Plan to return to work within four weeks if you have a desk job and eight weeks if you do more strenuous work.
