While Emma was waiting for a liver back in Texas, her doctors recommended to her parents, Cole & Megan Guyer, that multi-listing might be a good idea in order to help her get one sooner. Emma was suffering from biliary atresia and her liver was essentially killing itself. The Guyers had hope that a surgery could help solve the issue without a new liver, but it didn’t take, and so she would need a new one soon.
“If we wait any longer, complications are going to go up,” Megan explained. “Then the possibility becomes real of if she’s going to be too sick to get that liver.”
The donor line they were waiting in was exclusively from deceased donors, so the family was essentially waiting for someone to pass away that would be a match who was also a registered organ donor. Thanks to multi-listing, the family was able to also join the donor list at Children’s Hospital Colorado, which has a living donor program as well. The process involves taking smaller pieces of livers from living people which will regrow back to a full organ in the transplant recipient.