General Questions
How old are you?
16
Where are you from?
Menlo Park, CA
Transplant
What was your transplant?
Liver, received June 5, 2012, 9 years old
What was your condition that led to the transplant?
A.G.S.L. – Alagille Syndrome, which is a genetic disease of a mutated gene that makes it hard to process bile. It affects all organs but the liver was the worst.
What was life like before transplant?
I didn’t feel as well as I do now but I had to take a lot of medications. Towards the point I had my transplant I missed a bunch of school.
How long did you wait for your transplant?
¾ year
How was the road to recovery?
It was a long road to recovery. I think I had a pretty normal road to recovery for a liver transplant. There wasn’t anything abnormal about it.
What can you do now after transplant?
When I was younger – before my liver problem became worse – I could do normal stuff. As it got worse and worse, I had less energy and basic stuff became harder to do. I was supposed to have a transplant when I was one or two, but nobody knew why my liver stayed healthy for so long. So I got my transplant at nine instead. To put my liver in perspective, a normal liver is supposed to look pink but mine looked green.
What are you most excited about after being healthy?
I get to live longer than I would’ve. Knowing my life has been extended – sort of artificially – makes you value it more I think.
Donor
Do you know your donor?
No.
Would you like to meet your donor?
My donor is deceased.
Would you like to meet your donor family?
I’m not sure. It would be interesting at least to meet them.
I’d like to thank them… well… I’m not sure.
I don’t really want to meet them because I’m afraid they’ll be disappointed with the life I’m living now.
What would you say to people considering to be an organ donor?
They’d be helping someone. Helping to give life to someone else. As for live donors, I know it’s a difficult recovery program for live donors. For live donors, yeah, make sure you can handle it.
