Gift of life
Living-donor liver transplant unites two Tuolumne County families
An Upper Crystal Falls man didn’t know if he and his family would get to spend many more Christmases together after he was diagnosed with liver cancer in July 2022, until a woman whom he’d never met came along earlier this year and gave him a lifesaving gift.
John Stevens, 71, is now on the path to recovery and building many more memories with his wife, two sons and two grandchildren thanks to Jennifer Ives, 35, of Sonora, who donated two-thirds of her own liver to him in a procedure on Oct. 13 at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.
“You have a cloud over you,” Stevens said of what it’s like to be diagnosed with cancer. “You’re thinking, ‘Am I going to see my grandkids go to their first day of school, or celebrate more anniversaries with my wife?’ Now when I get up, I know I will get to experience all of that.”
People in the community may recognize Stevens from his time with Sierra Repertory Theatre, where he was involved in every show stage either as an actor, set designer, or stage builder for the first 40 years of the East Sonora theater’s existence.
Stevens is among the few every year who receive a liver transplant from a living donor, though his case is especially rare.
The American Society of Transplantation says more than 17,000 people in the United States are on the waiting list for a new liver, but only about 5,000 transplants are performed each year, mostly from deceased donors. More than 1,700 people die annually while on the waiting list.
“I didn’t think I would make it just because of all the statistics,” said Stevens, who was given two years to live without a transplant.
A healthy person can donate a portion of their liver to someone in need of a transplant thanks to the liver’s unique ability to regenerate. A donor’s liver will typically grow back to full size in a few weeks, while the portion given to the recipient will also grow to normal size.
The idea of such a procedure was first proposed within medical communities in the late 1960s, but the first successful attempt was not achieved until 1989 in Chicago. Since then, more than 6,000 living donor liver transplants have occurred in the U.S., nearly 1,000 of which were in California, according to the UC San Diego Department of Surgery.
Less than 5% of all liver transplants performed on adults in the U.S. are from a living donor, a fraction of which involve a donor and recipient who, like Stevens and Ives, are not related.
“The surgeon told her she’s special,” Ives’ husband, Chris Ives, said.
Jennifer Ives became aware of Stevens’ plight through a flyer for an event on July 11 at Sonora Brewing Co. organized by his wife, Alicia Bergmann, which had been shared on Facebook by a mutual friend of one of Stevens’ sons, Jesse Stevens.
The event aimed to raise awareness about living organ donation programs and hopefully find a matching donor. Jennifer Ives was aware of the procedure, as she had family members who suffered from Hepatitis C.
“I immediately reached out to Jesse,” Jennifer Ives said.
Before seeing the flyer, Jennifer Ives said she had been praying for God to show her something she could do in return for giving her a good life and healthy family, which includes her husband and three children, ages 4, 9 and 11.
She had also recently been through a similar experience herself with her father, James Potter, who died in the summer of 2020 from organ failure.
“Part of my thought was, ‘What if we could have pieced him back together?’ But he was too far gone,” she said. “This wasn’t something I wanted to do exactly, it was something I was called to do.”
Jennifer Ives has already given back more to her country than most people. In 2009, at
21 years old, she joined the U.S. Army and would go on to serve for more than three years in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team 4-319 Field Artillery Regiment.
She survived a 13-month deployment in Afghanistan that saw her unit come under frequent enemy attacks, one of which killed one of her closest Army friends.
After consulting with her husband and her pastor at Calvary Chapel Sonora, she began the extensive vetting process to confirm she was a viable match for donating part of her liver to save John Stevens’ life.
The death rate for living donors is less than 1%, but the surgeon who would perform the procedure warned her that dying is a possible risk.
“She said, ‘You could die,’ and I told her, ‘I survived war,’ “Jennifer Ives said.
John Stevens said he mostly kept himself out of the loop throughout the vetting process in case it didn’t work out.
“I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high because the higher they get, the worse it is if it doesn’t work out,” he said.
The news that John Stevens and his family had been waiting for finally came on Sept. 27, when Jennifer Ives, her husband and three children showed up at his door with flowers and told him, ‘You’re getting a new liver on Oct. 13.’ “
“I had a smile on my face for days,” he said. “As soon as Jennifer left, I was on the phone calling my son and many other people I know.”
There was still some lingering concern on John Stevens’ mind that something could prevent the surgery from moving forward. However, they all traveled to UCSF on Oct. 13 for what would be a 10hour operation.
After a successful surgery without complications, John Stevens and Jennifer Ives spent the next 10 days together in the same postop recovery room.
“They told me we wouldn’t be able to see him for days, but within hours, he was wide awake asking for people and we were talking to him,” Bergmann said of her husband’s positive recovery.
The weeks that followed required them both to travel back to UCSF for regular progress checks that have gradually stepped down in frequency, with neither experiencing any issues.
Despite having not known each other prior to the surgery, John Stevens and Jennifer Ives said they now keep in regular communication to check on each other. Both of their families even celebrated Thanksgiving together.
“Not only did I get a new liver, but I got a new family,” John Stevens said.
“Our kids ask about John all the time,” Jennifer Ives added.
John Stevens said his doctor has told him he can lead a regular life into his 90s now “if he wants.” He’s planning to spend as much of the time he has left with his wife, his two sons, Jesse and Arian, and grandchildren, Waylend, 10, and Beau, 2.
Bergmann added that she and her husband also wanted to thank the community for the outpouring of support when they reached out for help.
“It shows this is a really giving community,” Bergmann said, “and people want to help how they can.”