ORGAN DONORS

ment,” Salnave said. “That’s not something you just take away from somebody, whether you know them or not.”

She became what is known as an altruistic donor, which means the donor doesn’t know anything about the recipient, and the recipient decides if they want to meet the donor or have contact, Salnave said.

With liver donations, only part of the liver is removed because the organ regenerates. In October 2020, Salnave had 60 percent of her liver removed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. It was transferred to the recipient the same day and the surgery was a success.

LIVER HAS ALREADY GROWN BACK

At Salnave’s threemonth follow-up, she learned that her liver had already grown back. “Now I’m 37 with a freshly grown liver. It’s a winwin,” she said.

An Army reservist and single mother of two girls, Anais, 17, and McKenzie, 5, Salnave teaches nursing part-time at the American Medical Academy and recently finished a doctorate in nursing practice. She didn’t hesitate about being a living organ donor.

“One thing I’ve learned about being an oncology nurse is that it [cancer] can affect any and everybody,” Salnave said. “My patient is my age and I can relate to her. If I was ever in her shoes, I could only hope somebody would do the same for me.”

After the surgery, Salnave took off six weeks of work to recover. But her vacation time had already been used up, by two weeks of service as an Army reservist and a bout with COVID-19.

Salnave’s good deeds didn’t go unnoticed.

While she had a stranger’s back, her co-workers had hers. They chipped in their own vacation time.

“I felt compelled to donate eight hours of vacation time because Valerie is selfless, compassionate and always going above and beyond,” said Hollie Gow, director of Professional Nursing Practice Standards at Baptist Health’s Miami Cancer Institute. Employees collectively donated more than 120 hours of vacation to ensure that

Salnave had the time off needed to recuperate.

Her daughters also understood their mom’s sacrifice. After the surgery, Salnave said she was sleeping a lot.

“Fatigue is the biggest side effect during recovery as the liver regenerates,” she said. “So whenever I was sleeping my 5-year-old would tell people ‘Don’t wake up my mommy. She’s growing a liver. She needs to rest.’”

Salnave recently talked to her liver recipient, a Pennsylvania woman, for the first time over the phone. The two plan to meet in October for their one-year check-up.

But first she wants to raise awareness about living organ donation. “A lot of people don’t know you can do that, that you can donate your liver, your kidney, even your lung,” she said. “And if you get somebody off the National Registry, you’re helping multiple people because you’re saving that person’s life and then the other people on the list get to move up one more spot.”

HELPING A CO-WORKER’S HUSBAND

As a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Broward Health Medical Center, Brunna Martins, 36, spends her time caring

Brunna Martins, 36, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at Broward Health Medical Center, donated one of her kidneys to the husband of a co-worker she had never met, Helene Molino, left. The families have become good friends.

Courtesy Baptist Health South Florida Anabel Arcila, center, the Baptist NICU nurse charged with taking care of Giana Marie Verde. She and her two colleagues are prepped for the day Giana’s mother Monica gave birth on April 2, 2020. Monica had COVID but Giana was born healthy.