new here and question about live liver donation

Hi!
what a great forum. My uncle (70) died of liver cancer and my ex (56) died of end stage liver disease I guess, from long term hep C. I was wondering when they DISQUALIFY the option of live liver donation. We had split by the time my ex was in really bad shape but we had always discussed live liver donation. I would have been happy to do it, as would other family members. In the end, however, no one was asked. If the person is strong enough, and the donor (say, me) was ok with his use of pain medication or whatever, do they still rule it out? if so, why? I could understand his NOT being on the transplant list (he used oxy for pain) but unless he was so weak he couldn't do the surgery why wouldn't a donation have been considered? My uncle was in great shape, played tennis, very active. Is 70 the cutoff age? If they do not know the original source of the cancer, but the donor is ok donating anyway, do they still rule it out?
Curious about this, am trying to set up some sort of funding for hep C folks to get early medical attention by a hep specialist, but would sure like to know more about this.. thank you!!
Lila

I just leaned that Mayo and the University of Minnesota both have eliminated the age 70 cut off for liver transplantation. However, I think your chances are much greater with a few live donors who are willing to go through the testing process to determine if they can donate and in reality, they have only done transplants in the early 70's, not much later. Now that life spans are indeed longer, perhaps other centers will follow and not have a hard fast rule on age 70....

Thank you for the information. here I thought liver cancer was a contributing reason WHY people got liver transplants in the first place. I did not know that ruled you out of the TP process. I also thought that being of compatible blood type, not necessarily identical, same general body size, great physical health, not coerced and so on, would qualify a live liver donor and that even folks with ESLD, where treatment isn't really an option, could, if they were strong enough, go through with a living donor transplant.

Guess it depends on where you are and what transplant center you are involved with.

Thank you again!

Thank you pink grandma, very much!
So you need to be "high on the list" if you have a family member willing to donate?

Not all centers are allowed to do living donor transplants. I think California does them and Colorado. I know that Oregon does not do living donor transplants, so you would have to get listed on the center that does and follow all there requirements. It is an ongoing list of thing to be doing to stay active on a transplant centers list. My husband has been called in for transplant several times and thing just has not been right for him to get transplanted. There is a lot that goes in to a surgy like this. It is neat how the blood types work. Some can transplant to one type but not to another yet can be receive by different ones. Therefore, it is not just one type to another. I cannot remember the exact match up between receiving and donating.   Post Edited By Moderator (hep93) : 6/4/2010 10:36:32 AM (GMT-6)

David and vasquez, thank you so much for the info! Yes, we lived in colorado so was thinking of the live donor transplant program at U colorado. I can't remember the matching either, anyone can match with 0? AB can take A or B? can't remember but I really appreciate this, and David thank you for sharing your transplant story.

i would like it possible for others to at least get access to a doc who could perform these kind of transplants, if someone was interested. I think given the ratio of recipients to available livers, that live donor TPs will become more common, probably less suffering as someone might not have to wait that long. Am trying to find out how they make those decisions, of course am curious why my ex wasn't offered that option with so many who would have donated (and paid for the operation and recovery). I think that his doc never really did take him seriously over the years we were together, but also possible that he was just tired, and just wasn't up to any more struggles.


I wish my uncle had been offered a live liver as well. I guess now they are changing the upper age limit but given how healthy he was otherwise, and his kids who for certain would have donated, it is too bad.

Anyway, thank you again for your help!!!
Lila

well tried to post but i guess it didn't take!
was just going to thank you very much David.
In colorado, I do not believe you had to be a family member but had to match
in blood and general physical size (and be in great health..note to self, make lots of
really health friends!)
I live in montana-great fishing, not so great health care and no TP center, wish we had more
info on TP process in general up here. I get much of mine from HepC connection and U
colorado hospital (iverson). Am learning a lot more about it.
I hope we see many more live donor TPs, would love to help make that possible.
Know someone in canada, going through this, very ill, but have not heard any mention of a live TP
glad you and your liver are doing really well.
take care,
Lila