The nurse twice becomes live organ donors to her mother

But in order for the kidney transplant to succeed, she needed a liver first. Stasieluk's liver disease had been controlled for more than a decade, but it deteriorated during the Devid-19 pandemic. It wasn't so bad that she would have the priority for a liver from a dead donor, her family said, but as bad as a kidney transplant is likely not working.

Marzena's daughter, Jennifer Stasieluk, is a nurse who has taken care of patients in the most difficult times, through Coddy-19 and cancer. She was willing, even willing, to give her mother a kidney. They had all scans and tests, but it wouldn't work.

Although they had the same blood group, her mother is among a subgroup of patients called the highly sensitive “”. Marzena had a high number of antibodies against foreign tissue a factor that increases the likelihood of an organ being rejected and makes it much harder to find a match.

In January 2020, a meeting of the Mayo Clinton in Rochester, Minnesota, presented a new idea: Doctors suggested that Marzena receive a portion of the liver from a live donor.

After the liver transplant, Jennifer was prepared to donate a kidney to a stranger as part of a paired donation a process in which the kidneys of the living donor are exchanged so that recipients like Marzena can obtain a compatible organ.

Jennifer passed another round of blood and tests to prepare for kidney donation. But then came a surprise: because of the impact Jennifer's liver had on her mother's immune system, she was now able to give her mother a kidney.