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SALT LAKE CITY — It's rare for someone to be generous enough to undergo surgery and give their organ to another person, but it is much rarer for a person to decide to become a living donor a second time.
A 37-year-old Utah mom says she doesn't regret making that choice at all.
Kate, who asked to keep her last name private, is the first person in Utah to be a two-organ living donor, and she's one of just 155 people nationwide who have donated both a kidney and part of their liver.
Kate donated her kidney to a woman she met working in the Washington, D.C., area in the early 2000s, and more recently she donated part of her liver to 2-year-old Eva, who at the time was a total stranger.
"I have a daughter myself, about the same age, and to think about her having to be in the hospital all the time because of ... any kind of illness, sickness, injury or something like that — it's heartbreaking," Kate said. "So, if there's some way I can prevent someone else from going through that, I absolutely will."
Kate and Eva met at Primary Children's Hospital in late 2022, about a year after the surgery. Immediately, Eva pulled up her dress to show Kate the scar on her belly.
"I'm very happy that I did it, obviously," Kate said. "She's super cute and silly, and exactly the way a 2-year-old should be."
When Kate moved to Utah, she reached out to Primary Children's Hospital and offered to donate part of her liver to a child. She told staff she had already donated her kidney to an adult and wanted to help a child next.
"It's a wonderful experience to help someone, even in general, like when you open the door for someone, they're just really happy about it … and it makes your day to help," Kate said. "So, imagine the opportunity to donate and save someone's life."
Eva began treatment for biliary atresia when she was 2 months old. Her mom, Alyssa Anderson, said they waited for nine months for a liver donor. Anderson said without intervention, Eva would have died of a disease that years ago almost always led to death before a child's 1st birthday.
"Her liver was failing, and eventually it would have just given up, so (the donation) very much was like a lifesaving moment," Anderson said.
Eva's transplant came around the time of her 1st birthday, and she met her generous donor a year after that, following a year of healing. Now she is walking, dancing, and loves sliding down slides at the playground.
"I wanted to show (Kate) all the pictures and make sure she understood that she saved my baby's life," Anderson said.
She said her daughter now is like any other 2-year-old. While it took her 18 months to walk, she has now caught up and is learning new words and tricks.
Anderson said she was "kind of starstruck" when she met Kate, and it was really special to learn she was a mom, too.
"I said, 'You're a real person, you're normal, and you're just like me.' She's a mom, just like me," Anderson said.
She said she hopes to follow Kate's example and help another family by paying it forward.
"You don't know how much it means to the people you're saving," she said.
Kate is now inviting others to consider becoming a living donor, as well.
"If you are healthy enough to go through it, to recover well, and if you're a candidate for donation, I would absolutely recommend doing it. It's very rewarding," she said. "It's a wonderful experience to help someone."
Donating a portion of a liver as a living donor is possible because the donor's liver is able to regenerate, typically within two months, while the donated portion of a liver also grows to fit the body of the recipient, according to a news release from Primary Children's Hospital.
Cecile Aguayo, pediatric transplant services director at the children's hospital, said living donor liver transplants significantly increase the available organs for children, reducing waiting time and saving lives.
"The use of living donors also enables the transplant to be performed before the child's condition deteriorates, resulting in better outcomes and quality of life post-transplant," Aguayo said.
In 1997, Primary Children's became the hospital in Utah to successfully perform a living liver transplant, and at the time was one of few children's hospitals to use the procedure according to Aguayo. Since that year, doctors at Primary Children's Hospital have performed 42 living-donor liver transplants and have the largest transplant program in the Intermountain West.
