The pair sharing a liver
Kiwis are not big on donating organs, with a bill aimed at increasing donation and transplant rates poised to become law. The Dominion Post looks at those giving and receiving the gift of life. By Virginia Fallon.
Once upon a time a woman loved a man so much she gave a part of herself to save him.
He was dying, and hoping that someone else would help him but nobody did. So she let him have a piece of her body, and it made him well.
And they lived happily ever after.
When Jen Foster gave her husband Dan 60 per cent of her liver, the couple’s lives began again.
Twelve years after the mammoth operations the couple braved as newlyweds in Scotland, Dan says it’s hard not to speak in cliches to describe what Jen did for him. ‘‘I feel like I’ve lived my life in two parts – before and after the donation. She literally gave me another life.’’
Now 40, and living on the Ka¯ piti Coast where he grew up, Dan was a teenager when he was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis [PSC] – a rare, progressive liver disease where inflammation causes scars within the bile ducts – and ulcerative colitis,
a form of inflammatory bowel disease.
He was told he would ultimately need a transplant but ‘‘like most young guys’’, thought it would be decades away. A daily concoction of medication and bouts of illness became the norm as he got on with his life.
Dan and Jen met overseas and they were married in 2007. A few months later, he was told he was
in end-stage liver failure.
With his health deteriorating to the point his mother flew over to the United Kingdom to care for him, Dan knew he was dying.
‘‘I got told I had 12 months to find a liver or I wouldn’t be here. Jen instantly put her hand up because she wanted to save my life.’’
For Jen, there was never any doubt. ‘‘Call me selfish but I didn’t want to be a widow at 25, we were only married two months before. In my head, I’d already prepared for the worst. I’d researched and knew there was live liver transplant available but nobody had done it.’’
Living liver donation surgery sees a portion of the donor’s healthy liver transplanted to take the place of the diseased liver: the organ will then regrow to normal size in both people.
Initially told that she wasn’t a match because of the size difference between her liver and Dan’s, she demanded a second opinion, and was ultimately given the goahead. Dan didn’t want her to do it because of the danger involved with the operation.
‘‘She asked me, ‘If I was in her position, what would I do?’ So it was a back-up option that became our only option.’’
Twelve years on, and now the parents of two little boys, the couple lead a normal, healthy life but Dan says Jen’s sacrifice is never far from his mind.
‘‘Even now I look at Jen and I’m in awe of her. To have the person you love be the person who saved your life – you just can’t imagine it. It’s very hard to say how much I love her, she was my other half anyway, but now she’s literally my other half.’’