Oak Park man meets complete stranger who donated part of her liver to save his life
It's not every day that living donor liver transplants happen, and it's even more rare when they occur between complete strangers.
But when 49-year-old D’Angelo McWilliams needed a new liver and likely wouldn't qualify for a deceased donor organ for years, he received a life-saving gift from Katie Laurie of South Lyon. Their fates aligned after Laurie responded to an ad on Facebook.
Laurie and McWilliams, of Oak Park, finally met for the first time on Monday at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, roughly five months after the transplant. They embraced during an emotional press conference with their families and transplant surgeons.
"It's a shock, it just really blew my mind, no words can say what it meant … to find out that this perfect stranger wanted to give a part of their liver to me," McWilliams said.
A Facebook ad
Laurie said she saw an ad for a liver on Facebook while at the gym. A local toddler who lives in her family's subdivision in South Lyon was looking for a donor, so she clicked on the link to learn more.
"I knew you could give a kidney, but it never crossed my mind that like you could give a liver," Laurie, 41, said.
After learning about the living donor transplant process, Laurie decided to undergo testing in March 2024 to see if she was a match.
"I got approved to be a donor September 4, and then they called, like, the first week of October, and said that I was a match," Laurie said. "It's kind of random. I was just like, 'Oh I can do that. Why not?'"
Physicians took about 65% of Laurie's liver during the December surgery, said Dr. Nagai Shunji, surgical director of liver transplantation at Henry Ford, who said that the liver can grow back to around 90% of its original size within two weeks.
Happiest day of his life
McWilliams has been living with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic autoimmune disease that damages the bile ducts. Bile is made in the liver and helps with digestion, according to the American Liver Foundation. It travels through the ducts to the gall bladder and small intestine.
McWilliams already had to have his colon removed and reconstructed nearly 10 years ago, and was very sick, said Dr. Adhnan Mohamed, a senior transplant and hepatobiliary surgeon who helped with McWilliams' surgery. But these factors were not reflected in McWilliams' Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, which is used to prioritize candidates for deceased donor livers, Mohamed said.
"The damage to the liver was not something that was reversible. ... So that's where his liver was, and then that leads to infections and other symptoms and things like that," Mohamed said. "Unless your MELD score is high enough, a deceased donor is not an option, unfortunately."
McWilliams remembers learning that the hospital had found a donor, and said it was the happiest day of his life.
"It's a shock, it just really blew my mind, no words can say what it meant ... to find out that this perfect stranger wanted to give a part of their liver to me," McWilliams said.
Laurie said she was surprised to learn that she was a match for someone, and very curious about who they were and what their story was.
Altruistic organ donation is more common for the kidney, which humans have two of, Shunji explained.
"It's not common, I should say, I think we have done three or four (of) this type of living donor liver transplant so far," Shunji said.
Usually, the donor and recipient know each other, making McWilliams and Laurie's situation even more unconventional, Mohamed said.
"This is a unique experience for us," Mohamed said. "She (Laurie) really framed it in a way that's like, well, you know what, this isn't that big of a deal, right? Why not? If somebody needs it, why not?"
While Shunji took more than half of Laurie's liver to give to McWilliams, he said it's likely returned to almost 100% of its original volume in the last four months. The pair went into surgery on December 18, and Laurie was home by Christmas Day to celebrate with her family.
McWilliams' recovery has also been going well, he said.
"It's a learning curve," he said. "You have to learn what you gotta eat, because now I, you know, I can't eat certain things and go certain places."
The surgery was just two days before McWilliams' daughter De Angela's 16th birthday.
"The best birthday gift I could ever get is ... my dad getting help," De Angela said Monday.
McWilliams' wife Janell, 49, said she's been wanting to say thank you to Laurie. It's her donation that ensures he will celebrate many more birthdays with their daughter, she said.
"When I heard about her generous gift, like a complete stranger is willing to donate part of their organ, you know, it's just like, wow, just thank you," she said. "That's all I've been wanting, just to meet and say thank you."
Laurie's decision was a surprise to her family, some of whom didn't find out until just before.
"It was a surprise to us, we did not know," said Laurie's sister, Sara Milliken, 41, of Canton.
Mohamed said anyone can be a donor, and if people are interested, they should ask questions about it. For a certain subset of patients like McWilliams, who are more sick than what their diagnostic scores show, living organ donations are their best chance of getting a transplant, Mohamed said. More information can be found here.
"A liver transplant is life-saving. It is one of the few things in surgery that is life-saving, in the way that it is immediately," Mohamed said.
hmackay@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Oak Park man meets complete stranger who donated part of her liver to save his life
