Published October 07, 2024
Shortly after his son’s first birthday in 2019, Arnaldo Valentin received news that would change the course of his family’s life. Valentin had cirrhosis of the liver and would need a liver transplant. Like the thousands of patients in the U.S. waiting for a donor, he knew there was a chance he may never get the transplant he needed.
His wife, Crystal Vasquez, stepped in and made the decision to become her husband’s living donor.
“He’s my best friend and my husband so why wouldn’t I want to do it?” Vasquez said. “God put me here to do some work, so I did it.”
The process was not easy for either of them. Vasquez had to undergo testing to ensure she was a match, participate in donor education and was told she needed to lose weight.
“She would get up every morning and go to the park and walk miles and miles and miles. Sometimes I would go walk with her and I would get tired, but I would sit there and watch her walk knowing she was doing all of this for me,” Valentin said.
He suffered setbacks that included an emergency room visit for a ruptured blood clot and a COVID diagnosis that put his first scheduled transplant surgery on hold. Meanwhile, Vasquez was trying to tend to her husband’s medical needs as much as she could while also caring for three children at home.
Thankfully she was able to lean on family when she needed it most, including her sister, mom and daughter, Nasia.
“Nasia was the one who put up with a lot and got to experience this journey while also being a student and a big sister,” said Vasquez. “We are so proud of our daughter because she went through it with us and understood all of what was happening while trying to graduate high school.”
Leaning on loved ones is a critical component to becoming a living organ donor, says Ramesh Batra, MD, surgical director of the Center for Living Organ Donors liver program at Yale New Haven Transplantation Center, and associate professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine.
“Every patient must qualify or have the necessary medical indications for transplant. Then they must be surgically suitable,” said Dr. Batra. “The last piece to the puzzle, which is very important for the patient to have a successful transplant, is to have a robust support system.”
Currently in the U.S. around 20,000 people are waiting for a liver transplant and only about half get one. Statistics are worse in the northeast where areas are more densely populated, resulting in a higher need. But liver donation is unique in that living donors can donate part of their liver and over time it will regenerate as long as the liver is in a healthy environment.
“The liver is the only organ in the human body that can regrow, a quality similar to many animals’ tails that can grow back,” said Dr. Batra. “But the liver has a lot of complex function so it’s not just regeneration of the architecture but regeneration at the cellular and molecular level allowing it to function like normal.”
At Yale New Haven Health all donors and recipients have their own care team to ensure their needs are being met. Dr. Batra was Vasquez’s doctor and performed her surgery Dec. 1, 2022.
“The piece that we removed from her was the right lobe and it fit like a glove in her husband,” said Dr. Batra. “A match made in heaven because it wasn’t just an emotional connection that both of them carry but they had an anatomical connection.”
Transplantation surgeries are some of the most complex operations available and can take up to 24 hours to complete; living donor liver transplant surgeries are at the pinnacle of this complexity. Vasquez’s surgery was so successful it was like that described in a “textbook,” noted Dr. Batra. The surgical team included organ transplant surgeon David Mulligan, MD, professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine, who transplanted the organ into Valentin.
Valentin's body struggled to adapt after surgery, and he needed three additional surgeries, in part because of some issues related to his pre-existing blood clot. Two years later, Valentin says he feels “amazing.” They both continue to follow up with their care teams, at first every few months and eventually on a yearly basis.
Not everyone who needs a liver organ transplant has a family member or friend who is willing and able to become a living organ donor. That’s where the kindness of strangers comes in.
“What I’ve seen is we have a lot of donors where a stranger comes forward and donates a piece of their liver and decides to put themselves and their families through a lot, emotionally and surgically just to help someone else,” said Dr. Batra. “That is something so impressive that hooks communities together.”
The Yale New Haven Health Center for Living Organ Donors evaluates potential kidney and liver living donors free of charge. Learn more about becoming a living donor.
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