SAN ANTONIO – Fourteen people made history at University Health this year, undergoing surgeries that saved seven lives.
Thanks to volunteers donating part of their livers to people they hadn’t met until Friday, the hospital completed the nation’s first seven-pair living donor liver transplant exchange.
“This opportunity just absolutely means everything to me,” donor Tana Lusty said. “I think forever we’re going to be connected. And I just feel absolutely blessed and incredibly grateful.”
The seven donors and seven recipients met for the first time Friday, sharing emotional stories and gratitude.
“It’s hard not to be emotional, you know,” recipient Norma Cardenas said.
One donor, Robert McDonald, said he originally planned to donate to a friend.
However, the timing didn’t work out, and his friend received part of another person’s liver. McDonald still moved forward even though his recipient would be a stranger.
“A very easy decision for me to decide to donate,” McDonald said. “I always check the box that says organ donor on your driver’s license, but I never really thought of this before until I found out that somebody that I cared about needed this.”
Dr. Tarunjeet Klair, surgical director for the liver transplant program at University Health Transplant Institute, credited both donors and recipients for what it takes to make the process possible.
“Thank you so much for the donors, for your courage, your generosity, the recipients who constantly put, you know, trust us in our abilities to take care of you,” Klair said. “This achievement showcases the power of living donation and the advanced coordination and surgical skill required for these transplants.”
For Cardenas, the transplant marked a turning point after months of uncertainty.
“I started this in November 2024,” Norma Cardenas said. “I didn’t know if Thanksgiving was going be my last,” she said. But, she added, “I was able to go home and see my grandkids again. And so, I was forever grateful for that. That was a very special moment for me.”
“It was a medically and logistically complex process that required matching seven remarkable people willing to donate portions of their livers with seven patients needing life-saving transplants,” University Health said in a statement. “Waiting for a deceased organ might have taken too long to help some of these patients.”
Read also: