Ellasliver.com–the best Web site I’d love to see eradicated

Jeffrey over at Transplant Alliance called the online community’s attention to a beautiful Web site called ellasliver.com.  Ella Watson is a 25-year-old artist who somehow, remarkably, managed to survive biliary artesia as an infant and live relatively complication-free until she was 24.  She now needs a liver transplant, and her family and friends are considering [...]

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What we think: Some insight into the living donor mind

We don’t like to be called “heroes.”  Let’s start there.  At a living liver donor support session hosted at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago a few weeks ago, that was the nearly unanimous opinion expressed by the 18 or so living donors in the room.  That opinion culled a strong reaction from one family member [...]

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A vegan kidney saves the life of an animal lover, aw!

My good friend Mindy, who’s also a Greatest Gift Foundation board member, is vegan, so she was delighted to see in this one excellent blog post a woman’s personal account that ties a vegan, pro-animal rights lifestyle with her other favorite topic, living organ donation. 
I noted with interest that the author, living kidney donor Hillary Rettig, [...]

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This just in: Natalie Cole may receive kidney from son

People Magazine is reporting that singer Natalie Cole, who is on dialysis for Hepatitis C, may have found a kidney donor in her son, Robert. Here’s a link to the article.

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Buy a Charley’s sandwich, help fight kidney disease!

My vote for company of the month is Charley’s Grilled Subs, which in January is donating 10 cents from every sandwich sold to the National Kidney Foundation.  The nationwide Ohio-based chain is doing this in honor of Marcus Gilbert, a Charley’s franchisee who donated his kidney to one of his 16-year-old employees, Juan Delgado.  (You [...]

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Great Blog Post! Dad and Son Swap Letters about their Donor/Transplant Bond

Well, wow, this blog post from a living-donor recipient and his wife made my eyes get all teary through my smile:
http://writing4littleones.blogspot.com/2008/12/dear-john-letter.html
I am so profoundly grateful for blogs, which give our world this never-before-available window to the world and its beauty.  Thank you, Dixie and Paul, for sharing this!

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Just a nice story on a humble living donor

Jason Bleistein from my own neck of the woods here in the Twin Cities had a nice little Q&A-style write-up in the Minneapolis Star Tribune a few weeks ago.  The perfect little happy post for a snowy Saturday.  http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/35231829.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF

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Good luck tomorrow, David!

Tomorrow, David will join the ranks of living donors when a portion of his liver is transplanted into his Uncle, Paul, in Toronto, Ontario.  (Find his blog here.) Please join me in sending him best wishes for a safe surgery, a swift recovery, and the delightful outcome we all hope so badly for.

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Meet David, potential liver donor

Send your good vibes toward David, who is getting worked up to donate his liver to his uncle, Paul, who suffers from the same disease my brother did, Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis.  David has started a blog to share his experiences — I’ve added a link to it to the “Living Donor Blogs” list on the [...]

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Let ‘er rip

Hi, readers.  Last night I cried myself to sleep.  There you go – naked honesty.  For reasons that confound me, infuriate me, depress me, and leave me raw, Joe is back in the hospital this week suffering from complications due to strictures and infections that won’t seem to leave him to live his life in [...]

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