Norah has blood type A+ so will need a donor who has an either A or O blood type.

Due to her current small size, the doctors estimate that her donor would have to be a small individual between mid 20s and mid 40s and weighing around 120 lbs or less, and in good physical health. They would take the left (smaller) lobe of an existing liver and rewire it so that it would fit into Norah and grow into a full size liver with her. The liver is actually the only organ that regenerates itself, so it’s a bit of a blessing that of all the organ needs, that is the one Norah requires to grow up into a healthy little girl.

Transplants are massive undertakings, with many risks for both parties. The evaluation for donors is approximately 4-10 days (at UCLA, they won’t do out-of-state) and then if a donor is selected, the surgery will be several hours, with approximately 1-2 weeks recovery in the hospital and at least 6 weeks but up to 3 months for total recovery.

The odds of finding a donor that meets all their specific criteria and being available when Norah needs it are very small, but we still have hope. Regardless she will be listed on the national organ sharing list and given a PELD score that gives her rank as far as how soon she will need a liver in comparison to others on the list waiting for cadaver donations.

While a living donor would be great since the liver wouldn’t have to be put “on ice” before transplant and they could interview the donor in person, we realize it is asking a lot. Instead what we are asking is that you check your driver’s license and please list that you would be willing to be an organ donor if something were to happen to you. There are literally hundreds of people and children waiting on life-saving organs, and if we can all do our parts to ensure that we can help others even after we are gone, that is important!