DONOR | Jo Anne's Story

Jo Anne Mack

LIVING Liver DONOR NEEDED

My name is Jo Anne Mack, and I've been battling liver disease for over 25 years. This is my story:

As an occupational therapist, I've loved healing people and helping them return to their favorite activities. My wonderful children, Erin, Katie, and Scott are the lights of my life. My beautiful granddaughter, Madison, fills my heart with joy every day. For a long time, I was able to manage my liver disease with the proper medication, by my condition has gotten worse over the last two years.

Now, liver failure impacts my life on a daily basis. Losing the ability to do what I love has been the hardest burden to bear. Cooking, gardening, working on home projects, and entertaining friends and family are no longer possible. After battling liver disease for over two decades, finding a living donor is now my best option.

Receiving a liver transplant would change everything for me and my family. It would allow me to return to the things I love most, witness every milestone in my children's evolving lives, and watch my granddaughter grow into the beautiful person I know she will be.

Please help me find a living donor by sharing my story with your friends and family. If you are interested in donating or want to learn more about the process, please call the Transplant Center at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) at 866-925-3897

Thank you for reading my story, I appreciate your support more than you know.

START YOUR JOURNEY

Become Jo Anne Mack's Donor

If you are considering being a living donor please use links below to contact Jo Anne Mack's Transplant Center. Begin by completing the donor questionnaire

Fill Out DONOR Questionnaire
(INQUIRES ARE 100% CONFIDENTIAL)

Becoming a Liver DONOR Find a Transplant Center near you

Yale New Haven Transplantation Center

333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT, 06520

(866) 925-3897 Email Transplant Center

Did you know?

Medical expenses for living organ donors are 100% covered, and inquires from potential donors are 100% confidential! Contact the Transplant Center to learn more about living donation.

More Donor FAQs

Share the Importance of Living Donation

Liver transplantation has been a successful treatment and standard of care for end-stage liver disease since the early 1980s.

Technical advancements in liver surgery, as well as the liver's tremendous ability to regenerate, have made living donor liver transplantation a life-saving reality.

There are currently 120,000 people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant in the U.S. Of these, 15,000 await liver transplants.

Although more than 6,000 liver transplants were performed last year, over 1,700 patients died while waiting on the list.

Deceased donor livers are allocated to patients based on how sick they are, determined by their MELD score, where sicker patients receive priority.

Living donation offers patients the option of transplant before they get very sick--regardless of MELD score--significantly decreasing the time they wait for a liver.

Living donation not only saves the life of the recipient; it also frees up a liver for a patient on the waiting list who does not have that option.

The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and Pediatric End-Stage Liver Disease (PELD) are numerical, objective scales that allocate available livers to the sickest patients. Patients move up the list as their scores increase.

The first living donor liver transplant took place in 1988. Since then, living donors have continued giving the gift of life and making a difference.

When a recipient has a living donor, the wait time for transplant is shorter and the transplant can be scheduled in advanced when the recipient is in good health and when it is convenient for both the donor and the recipient.

Financial burdens shouldn’t prevent the gift of life. The National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC) can offer financial support for living donor travel expenses.

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