AURORA, Colo. — Maureen Carrig was scrolling through social media one day in December when she came across a headline that would shape her next year.
She had never considered becoming a living donor, but when she saw Denver7's story about a woman's experience donating part of her liver for children on the transplant list, she decided to see if she would be a good candidate for the surgery.
“I read the story online. It showed up in one of my social feeds, and it really stopped me in my tracks because I thought if that were me, if that were somebody in my family, one of my friends, and nobody was a match, I would hope that somebody would come forward and offer to donate on their own," Carrig said. “I went straight from that story to the link to UCHealth. Filled out an application first week of January. I was contacted by one of the transplant coordinators, and here we are now, almost a month after surgery.”
Carrig had the surgery on June 26, after months of appointments and preparation.
“The process overall was fantastic, and I'm very, very glad I did it," she said. "One of the best things about it was the level of communication involved. People were very clear about what to expect, how long recovery would take, how they were going to go about doing the surgery, how much pain would be involved, those types of things.”
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Since her surgery, Carrig has been working to gain her appetite and her activity level back. She has seen progress with every passing week.
“The only thing that's a little bit tricky is the fatigue level, which is very common, and the surgical team said to expect that basically as my liver regenerates. All my energy goes to that organ, so it could really drain you," Carrig explained. “I felt so supported, so well cared for, from everyone at UCHealth that I interacted with. My family and friends have been terrific. Nobody questioned my decision.”
It's a decision Carrig would go back and make again.
"I'm not in the medical profession, I don't have the skills that the doctors, nurses and all the staff here at UCHealth have, but I can still make a difference. I can still do something to benefit somebody else's life," Carrig said. “I'm just somebody who is able to give, to give a piece of an organ, and I'm grateful I was healthy enough and qualified as a candidate to do that."
She said the heroes in these situations are the medical staff, transplant recipients and their families.
"They've had a very long road in this process from diagnosis to waiting for this process to then finally, finally getting the transplant that they needed," she said.
Dr. Trevor Nydam, the interim chief of transplant at the University of Colorado's School of Medicine, was Carrig's surgeon.
“She was one of our first right liver donors that we did with robotic assistance," Dr. Nydam said. “Maureen and the other patients that we've operated on with robotic assistants have done extremely well. The pain after the operation, I think, is significantly less. They're up and moving around more quickly."
Their hospital stays are shorter and they get back to their life and normality quickly, Dr. Nydam said.
Living donors allow doctors to fulfill transplants for patients who are not necessarily at the top of the list.
"If there's somebody who is lower on the list, and they're not getting sick enough to make themselves a good candidate for a deceased donor, we can proceed with living donation and get them a transplant," Dr. Nydam said.
UCHealth has more information about becoming a liver or kidney donor on its website.
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