The liver is one of two organs in our body that a living person can donate. — 123rf
Anne Werpy rang a bell in late August (2024), signifying her discharge from a recovery unit at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, United States, after her liver transplant.
The 52-year-old received her liver as part of a unique pairing that matched recipients to donors who were unable to give their organs to loved ones who also needed transplants.
She had been waiting a year for a liver transplant – getting sicker and more exhausted the entire time – when she was rescued by an unusual exchange that had never happened before in Minnesota.
A doctor wanted to make a living liver donation at the time Werpy needed one, but he wasn’t a good match for her.
He was, however, a match for another transplant recipient, and that woman had a son.
And the son’s liver was just the right size and blood type to transplant into Werpy and treat her worsening liver disease.
“I don’t know them at all,” Werpy said of the two donors.
“I’m just so thankful and grateful. It’s basically a second chance at life for me.”
The chain of events was the first example in Minnesota and at Mayo Clinic of a paired living liver donation.
The two women with liver disease both received transplants in August (2024), and their health has subsequently improved, while their altruistic donors have returned to full strength after donating portions of their own livers.
The successful paired donation was announced by Mayo in the hopes of inspiring more donations.
“Deceased donation is the main source of liver transplants in this country. That’s not going to change,” said Mayo transplant surgery chairman Dr Timucin Taner, who performed both surgeries to obtain the donor livers.
“But hopefully, we will be doing more living donors and paired exchanges as we go.”
More than 140 people are registered in Minnesota for transplants to replace failing or damaged livers, and half of them have been waiting for six months or longer, according to data from the US Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
Nine people died last year (2023) before they could receive transplants in the state, either at Mayo or the University of Minnesota Medical Center.
Living organ donations are possible when people give one of their two kidneys for transplants, or segments of their liver – the organ that filters the blood in the body and plays a key role in digestion and metabolism.
Donors can give as much as 70% of their livers, which will then grow back to normal size in weeks.
“The liver is the only organ that can do that,” Dr Taner said.
Paired donations have helped for two decades to reduce waiting times for kidneys, which remain viable for transplants as long as 24 hours after they are taken from donors.
Transplant centres put their patients on registries that enable them to find paired matches with patients in other parts of the US.
In comparison, options are more limited for livers, which typically need to be transplanted within 12 hours.
Most hospitals have only created pairings for liver transplants among their local patients, though the United Network for Organ Sharing is testing a collaboration across 15 US transplant centres.
Mayo had protocols in place for two years before an opportunity for a paired liver donation emerged.
Typical pairings swap livers between two people who can’t give their organs to loved ones in need of transplants.
Mayo’s first case by comparison was unusual, starting with Dr Michael Broeker who had already donated a kidney in 2022 and wanted to donate his liver to anyone who needed it.
Dr Broeker, 53, was thrilled to learn his decision produced two transplants: “I feel I have been blessed with really good health and I see people who aren’t so fortunate.”
His gradual recovery this autumn allowed the family practice doctor to return to running and plan a half-marathon training run this weekend in preparation for a marathon next spring (2025).
“I’m no faster than I was before,” he quipped, “but not that much slower.” – By Jeremy Olson/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Tribune News Service
