Unpublish Reasons
Please share with the transplant center the reason you are unpublishing your story.
Christine Looby
Kenneth Ferrucci Needs A LIVING Liver DONOR
Supporting Ken Ferrucci along an Important Journey
Ken and I have been friends since our days as undergrads at Fairfield Universities. We were both RAs and shared an English class or two. I am very much in his corner as he searches for a liver donation.
Ken misses the simple things — walking his dog and being active with his athletic sons. He has a very positive attitude, but this journey is emotionally stressful and physically taxing.
A transplant would be a fresh start at a purpose-driven, peaceful chapter of life. Ken has held positions of progressive leadership in his career and has so many more creative, thoughtful contributions to make in any community he serves. I can’t help but think this experience will enrich and embolden him as a professional. I know for certain that it will bring him and his sons great joy through many more moments and milestones.
I am certain that as more of us who care about him and his family share Ken’s story, we will find the living donor who will have a profound effect on his healthy future.
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START YOUR JOURNEY
Become Kenneth Ferrucci's Donor
If you are considering being a living donor please use links below to contact Kenneth Ferrucci's Transplant Center. Begin by completing the donor questionnaire
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.
By sharing this story you are bringing hope and opportunity to a patient in need
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.