My Liver Donation Story: Taira Foster
My living liver donation came to be through the extraordinary experience I first had as a kidney donor. I loved the experience in large part due to the dedicated and caring donor coordinators who guided me through the process. That’s what led me to want to work as a living donor coordinator myself. I hadn’t been able to find my niche in the field of nursing until kidney donation inspired me to find a job as a living donor coordinator.
I was hired by UC Health in Colorado on the living donor transplant team and soon learned about living liver donation. Since donating a kidney was such a wonderful experience, I decided to look into liver donation as well.
After about four months in my new job, I started the testing process to be a liver donor. Since I didn’t have a personal connection to anyone in need of a liver, I was evaluated as a non-directed donor.
When it comes to liver donation, so much depends on the anatomy of your liver. After completing all of my imaging, it turned out that I could only donate the smallest piece of my liver, which meant it would have to go to someone very, very small.
They matched me with an 11-month-old baby girl at the local Children’s Hospital. The baby was very sick and needed to be transplanted immediately, so they moved some things around to do the surgery sooner than later. Less than two weeks after I was approved to donate, they scheduled my donation surgery.
Soon after, a deceased donor’s liver became available for the baby. I was happy for the baby, of course, but a little heartbroken that it meant I wouldn’t be moving forward to donate to her.
She went into surgery, but in the OR they determined that the cadaver liver wasn’t going to work for her. I had thought my surgery was off, but the next thing I knew, my liver donation surgery was back on. So, about a week later, in September 2019, I donated a small piece of my liver to a baby girl in need.
As far as I know, she made a complete recovery. I had hoped to make a connection with the family, so after the required amount of time I wrote a letter telling them a little bit about myself and my desire to connect with them.
Though I never heard back from the family, I feel it was fate that my liver anatomy was only appropriate to donate to a baby. I may not know who that baby is in the world, but it was rewarding to be able to help someone so sick, innocent, and vulnerable. I feel lucky that I was able to help that family through such a hard time.
About the Author
Taira currently resides in sunny Sarasota, with her husband and cats. She loves lounging by the pool, getting creative in the kitchen, and enjoying sunsets on Siesta Key. She currently works for the NKR as a microsite coach, helping transplant patients find the living donor they need.