A Mom Turns to Facebook for a Liver — and a Shot at Life
Heathland Time | Bonnie Rockman
Photo: ADAM ROOTMAN. Debra Karby with her sons, Sacha and Tobyn
The internet can widen the pool of organ donors, so one woman is hoping she'll find her liver match online
The liver is a remarkable organ. Like a starfish, it regenerates. Cleave it in two, and within eight weeks, it’s nearly regrown to its former size. That biological bit of trivia could help save my friend Debra Karby’s life.
Debra is the younger sister of one of my best friends. She was diagnosed seven months ago with an aggressive liver sarcoma. Sarcomas don’t like chemotherapy, and after six rounds, Deb’s care team in Vancouver, where she lives, conceded that the potent drugs hadn’t made the tumor shrink. In fact, it had actually progressed. Her best â€" really her only â€" shot at ousting this invader is a liver transplant.
The transplant is controversial. Her disease is too unusual (her doctors are convinced it’s a result of radiation she had 19 years ago for Hodgkins lymphoma) and her tumor too advanced for her to languish on the transplant list for an organ from a deceased donor, waiting to inch forward in line. She needs a live donor â€" someone willing to donate a chunk of liver â€" soon. For various reasons, her family members don’t qualify.
Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
Photo: ADAM ROOTMAN. Debra Karby with her sons, Sacha and Tobyn
The internet can widen the pool of organ donors, so one woman is hoping she'll find her liver match online
The liver is a remarkable organ. Like a starfish, it regenerates. Cleave it in two, and within eight weeks, it’s nearly regrown to its former size. That biological bit of trivia could help save my friend Debra Karby’s life.
Debra is the younger sister of one of my best friends. She was diagnosed seven months ago with an aggressive liver sarcoma. Sarcomas don’t like chemotherapy, and after six rounds, Deb’s care team in Vancouver, where she lives, conceded that the potent drugs hadn’t made the tumor shrink. In fact, it had actually progressed. Her best â€" really her only â€" shot at ousting this invader is a liver transplant.
The transplant is controversial. Her disease is too unusual (her doctors are convinced it’s a result of radiation she had 19 years ago for Hodgkins lymphoma) and her tumor too advanced for her to languish on the transplant list for an organ from a deceased donor, waiting to inch forward in line. She needs a live donor â€" someone willing to donate a chunk of liver â€" soon. For various reasons, her family members don’t qualify.
Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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