Liver transplant
 

An old drinking buddy has been told he needs a liver transplant. While I know the liver is big and just that fact would make it a major surgery, is it complex / difficult / dangerous?

Andy, any major surgery has its risks. That said, I have a good friend that underwent a successful liver transplant a few years ago. It wasn't due to drinking, it was a defect he had since childhood that finally needed to be addressed. Modern medicine has come a long way in such things in recent years.

Very serious. Our friend had a non alcohol related liver transplant. Got sepsis and died a month later at 32 yrs old.

Thanks for your replies. He has been told he is not 'bad' enough to have the transplant which if you saw him you wouldn't believe. I think he may actually be too ill to have it. :-(

Yes, it is serious. And seriously expensive- the actual cost is huge, regardless of the part the patient pays (I used to specialize in stop loss insurance, which is high loss reinsurance of medical risk - transplants in general are at least 100,000s and much more if things go wrong).

I hope your friend has good doctors (and good insurance) as he navigates this path. There are many people on waiting lists for all kinds of transplants so I hope he does get one if he qualifies. Since it is not drinking related (generally this disqualifies us for liver transplants), hopefully he has better chances in the "allocation" process.

Here is an article I found - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2886399/

All surgery has risk, but modern surgeries are more often successful than not. Whether his body is still capable of accepting the liver is probably more of an issue than the procedure itself. I wish the best of luck to him for a safe procedure and a full recovery.

Most organ transplant surgeries are complex mainly due to the possibility of rejection. I had a friend who had 2 heart transplants, the 2nd one due to his body eventually rejecting the first heart. Yet we bowled in a league together and played golf regularly. My ex-wife was a nurse that worked with the transplant team at UNC (Carolina Donor Services) and I met him through her.

Many who have a diseased liver will die while on the liver waiting list. Some fortunate ones will receive a new liver and lead normal lives. Others will receive a new liver and then return to their old harmful ways and have their bodies once again in time shut down.

Many here on the waiting list have to prove that they are staying totally sober so as to stay on the list. I knew one man in AA who was in this position. He had to have AA slips signed to prove attendance and also was tested often. He came around for four or five years and then disappeared. Not sure if he died first or received a liver ?

M-Bob