DONOR | Kristen's Story

Kristen Stover

Amanda Werkle Needs A LIVING Liver DONOR

“The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths.” -Epictetus

Who is THAT person? The person that makes you laugh so hard tears start flowing. That person that fills your heart and helps you to recognize that you will never be alone. The person that walks hand-in-hand with you on life’s journey. The one you find holding your hand when things are tough and whose arms are wrapped around you when you need it most. For me that is my sister, Amanda.

Amanda is someone who would give you the world if she could. She has touched the lives of so many and with no strings attached. However, Amanda needs us now. She is struggling to live with her failing liver. She takes so many medications to keep that smile on her face each day. Her life has changed in so many ways and yet she does it in a way many don’t even know about.

It is time to change that! It is time to give back!

This year Amanda will be celebrating her 40th birthday! Getting a part of your liver would mean she can finally build her life back to a sense of normal again. She would no longer need to survive on a plethora of meds and hopefully live another long healthy 40+ years.

I am currently in the process of trying to be her donor, but I, alone, am not the answer. Each applicant has less than a 10% chance of being her match, even myself. Blood type, health restraints and even how each liver is shaped contribute to who will be the perfect match! As a mother, wife, daughter and sister I am willing to take the minimal risk to help save the life of another. I hope you will join me!

START YOUR JOURNEY

Become Amanda Werkle's Donor

If you are considering being a living donor please use links below to contact Amanda Werkle'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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Kristen's Patient

Amanda

Liver DONOR NEEDED

"Hope" is the thing with feathers - 'That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops at all' Emily Dickinson

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