Unpublish Reasons
Please share with the transplant center the reason you are unpublishing your story.
Wendy Zimmerman
Tom Zimmerman Needs A LIVING Liver DONOR
Please help my husband, Tom, find a living liver donor.
Tom is my husband of 42 years! We enjoy traveling, time with extended family and time with our grandchildren. Tom is a hard worker and was an avid runner, running a half marathon a few years ago. He’s a very loving and kind husband, dad and Grandpa.
Tom has been unable to run or even exercise since his diagnosis. His fatigue has really depressed him. He is not the Grandpa he wants to be and misses fun times with his grandchildren. His life, our life together has completely changed. Just getting through the day for Tom is tough sometimes.
A transplant would give Tom his life back. It would give us our life back! Tom would start his running again. His goal is to run another half marathon! We would travel and he would play & run with his grandchildren. Something he’s missed so much!
Tom has stage 4 liver failure and his only chance for survival is a live liver transplant. If you would like to get tested or know someone who would like to help call Johns Hopkins Liver office @ 410-614-2989. Thank you for considering!
PreviousNext
START YOUR JOURNEY
Become Tom Zimmerman's Donor
If you are considering being a living donor please use links below to contact Tom Zimmerman'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.
