A donor is considered “altruistic” when they donate an organ to someone they do not know. It is fairly common for kidney donors to be altruistic, because people have two kidneys to give. Donating a portion of the liver is a different matter.
Elizabeth Pomfret, MD, chief of transplant surgery at the University of Colorado Hospital, split Ms. LaSalle’s liver in two and transplanted one portion to a 1-year-old boy. Splitting the liver in half carries risks.
“And for anyone to do this — it’s very unusual and really extraordinary,” Dr. Pomfret said. Only a couple of liver-splitting surgeries have been performed in the U.S., according to ABC 7.
“I have no impairments from here on out for the rest of my life,” Ms. LaSalle said when talking about her liver growing back and fully functioning. “My liver has grown back. I can still do everything that I did before. It’s not just the feeling of helping someone else out and possibly saving that person’s life. There were so many parts of it that were a great experience. Every single person that I met along the way.”
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