Making the List

My father-in-law received noticed that he was going to be put on the liver transplant list in the fall of 2005. His health was detereating at a fast enough pace that it would be best for him to receive a new liver. Because he went to the Lahey Clinic at a good point in his condition, he is able to consider receiving part of a liver rather then waiting for a cadaver liver which would be a whole liver. If he had waited even 6 months before making his appointment at the clinic, it could have been too late and he would have had to wait until his number came up for a cadaver liver.

So, my father-in-law let his 3 children know and like I mentioned before, his oldest wanted to see if he would match, but he had just started a new job and didn’t feel like he could ask for 3 months off from work, his middle son (my husband) was on board and his youngest did not have health insurance. Of course my father-in-law really didn't want to have his son to go through this major surgery, but my husband insisted and called the clinic to see what needs to be done.

Since my father-in-law was placed on the liver transplant list, he is able to consider the live donor program. The doctors suggested that biological family is the best way to start to look for a live donor since genetically, things have a better way to match since there needs to be countless things that have to match between the donor and recipient.