Do you know what is even more amazing than the odds of survival for both people...that in as little as 4 weeks both the donor and reciepant will have regeneraged a full liver!!!! It is amazing! This living donor program next to stem cell research is what will change liver disease and the fatality rate forever. Stem cell is so far in the future this is in the now! It is one our best hopes. I have to admit...seeing that article as a mother....scared me....I would never want to live if it meant my son would die. I can't even imagine what that donor feels like. My heartache and prayers are with them...and the Lahey clinic as they must be devistated by the outcome!

I'm glad that you posted this !! we need to know!! I myself don't meet the critera to be on a transplant list but I do care about others that have a good shot at it... that's so very sad that the person had died afetr doing such a wonderful thing for someone.. there must have been more to it than just giving a part of there liver..may that person rest in peace..:( xoxox Janet

Deke, there are risks for living donors, and they are one of the reasons the donor has to be with their health at 110%. Your post was great, it reminds us of the fact, and keeps our feet on the ground.

I am sure there is more to this story also, and had the donor contracted a STAPH INFECTION FROM THE HOSPITAL, the real reason as cause of death may NEVER be known!!!

My immediate thought was a staph infection as well....I have caught MRSA and CDIF at the hospital on two separate occations. Both nearly killed me. To this day I have not been cleared from MRSA as I want them to use Universal Protection when they treat me...so that I don't end up with it again....Still even with the MRSA on record some do not gown up. Nurse's and Doctor's attitude is that everyone has MRSA on them...Well not everyone's immune system is working at top rate. MRSA is widely spread from the clothing doctor's and nurses where as they perform routine visits from one patient to another. Also the TV remote is a huge offender in the hospital as it is not sterolized after a pateint leaves. I become a germaphobic every time I have to go to the hospital for anything.

You're absolutely correct, Maggie. My wife is a surgeon at a smallish local hospital and it is shocking how many otherwise healthy peole end up very sick or worse from infections contracted while at the hospital for relatively minor procedures. She recommends the small surgical centers for ninor surgery; there aren't as many sick people there! I had elbow surgery last year in a small outpatient surgical center that only does knees, elbows, hands, etc. In and out and much less likely to be exposed to all of the germs floating around your average hospital.