DONOR | James's Story

James Cullen

LIVING Liver DONOR NEEDED

We worked hard to get the life we have and now I want to enjoy it

My name is Jim Cullen. I’m a former line splicer and live in Wallingford with my wife and dog. Until this August, I enjoyed keeping bees, gardening, chopping wood and traveling. I have a history of cancer and in a routine follow up a non related issue with my liver was found and in short order my body could no longer eliminate fluid from my abdomen and lungs. Needle aspirations have helped and a variety of medications daily are required.I now have extreme fatigue and weakness and am limited in the activities I had taken for granted. A transplant would mean, to use a most fitting phrase, a new lease on life for me and my family.
I am in need of a live liver donor and pray for potential donors to contact the Yale transplant program and get screened. You or someone you know could work a miracle in my life.
Thank you!

My life has slowly ground to a halt
Every year for the last 20 years or so I have put in a garden now I am unable to lift a shovel of soil
A few years back I became a beekeeper
Now my wife is learning to help me keep the bees.
While in the hospital for 28 days this summer I decided to get a German Shepard puppy to help me recover by getting exercise walking and playing with her. This soon became too much for me, as she became stronger and I grew weaker. A transplant would be the gift that would give me my life back.

So here I am after numerous doctors visits, tests scans, scopes, and medications now preparing for the last vital step-having the transplant.
All this seems so easy compared to asking for someone to give me the gift that will give me my life back. Would you or someone you know consider helping by becoming a donor?
Thank you,
Jim

START YOUR JOURNEY

Become James Cullen's Donor

If you are considering being a living donor please use links below to contact James Cullen'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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