We are at that time of year when giving thanks is on everyone’s mind. It’s also the time of year that people seem to begin to take stock in what they have done during the year to be a giving person and generally what we each have done to make the world a better place.

Recently, I saw a story on TV that reminded me that there are needs that we forget about unless we are close to the story. One of those is that of the living donors. People who donate a kidney or part of a liver to someone who may otherwise not get that second lease on life. The living liver donor was the story I actually saw.

In the case of the story I saw, a liver transplant saved a life and the donor was simply someone who was a match. A gift that has bonded the two men’s lives forever. A liver transplant is a surgical procedure done in some patients with liver failure to replace their diseased liver with a healthy liver. The diseased liver is removed and replaced with a portion of a donor’s healthy liver. Often times, a living donor is the only option for those who are too sick to wait for a deceased donor’s liver. Those who receive a live donor’s organ will have a greater life expectancy post transplant.

According to the American Transplant Foundation, a liver donation for a living donor may have more complications than a deceased transplant, and the recovery time can be two to four months. But, they also note that with advances in surgical techniques over the past 10 years, it has become much more common and with better results. Although there are many transplant centers within the United States, there are fewer that will handle transplants from non-directed donors (donating to a stranger), hence any consideration should include confirmation that a transplant center can handle such a donation.

In living donor surgery, the donor and the recipient are placed in side-by-side operating rooms. A surgeon removes part of the donor’s liver, and then this segment is placed immediately in the recipient in the next operating room. Many liver transplants are done laparoscopically, which leaves only a small incision scar. The remaining part of the donor’s liver is sufficient to maintain normal body functions, and the recipient receives a large enough part to also maintain body functions.

The most incredible part is that during the approximately next two months, the remaining and transplanted parts grow to normal size and provide normal long-term liver function for both the donor and the recipient.

The story told on TV went onto follow both the donor and recipient, and how their lives had changed for the better as a result of the operation. They now speak about live liver donation often and how they lived in the same town, but never crossed paths before the transplant. They now plan each year on the “birthday” of the recipient’s operation to do something together that requires being active.

The recipient asked his doctors if he was a candidate, and when they said yes, he asked how would he find someone. They said just start asking people. He did just that. And the donor, a nursing student, responded and was a match.

The benefits of receiving a liver from a living donor are things such as no waiting period, surgery can be arranged, life expectancy is longer for a recipient and the option to be able to have surgery before the onset of life-threatening complications while waiting for a liver from a deceased donor.

The American Transplant Foundation statistics show that from 1988 through August 2018 160,722 liver transplants have been performed. There were nearly 14,000 people on the waiting list as of August 2018, and currently there are 114,362 patients on the total organ waiting list. As a result of the organ shortage, more than 6,000 lives are lost in the United States each year, and more than 1,400 of these deaths were those waiting for a liver transplant.

And in 2017, 367 liver transplants were made possible by living donors.

Although this great a gift to give may not be something you can possibly or maybe it is, either way, it is the season of both giving and giving thanks. Thank you to those givers, all of you!