Rachel Davis

I first learned about living liver donation during my first year of medical school, and I immediately knew that I wanted to be a living donor. I didn’t yet understand all that it involved, but I thought it was the most remarkable thing I’d ever heard of. The human body is incredible. At the time, though, non-directed donation wasn’t really a thing, so it stayed with me as a vague but persistent idea.

Nearly twenty years later, while working online, I came across a story about another livingbdonor, a double donor, who had donated both a kidney and part of her liver at the University of Colorado. The story included a link to the living donor application. Without thinking much about it, I filled it out. I received a call the next morning, and things moved forward quickly.

A few months later, in January 2022, I donated the right lobe of my liver to a woman I had never met through non-directed donation. About a month after surgery, I met her for the first time. She and her husband live in New Mexico. I’ve since visited her twice, and we remain in touch. She isdoing well. I’m also in better physical condition than I’ve ever been, I wasn’t a runner before donation, but I’ve run seven half-marathons since 2022.

This has been one of the most profoundly meaningful things I’ve done in my life. Even as a physician, it’s rare to have the opportunity to so directly save someone’s life. I share my story to raise awareness, because if more people knew living donation is an option, I believe many more would consider it. I now co-host the podcast Transplant Talks and have incorporated living donation into my academic work, including publishing research on the topic.