Living donation is not limited to kidneys: donors may also give part of a liver, lung or pancreas, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. A person who donates to someone they do not know is making what the Cleveland Clinic calls a non-directed donation.
How common is living-donor liver transplantation?
According to the OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report on liver transplantation, living donation represented 5.7% of adult liver transplants in the United States that year.
Dr. Charles Rickert, a UCSF physician specializing in transplant and general surgery, has donated a kidney and part of his liver to strangers. NBC Bay Area reported that his liver donation took place about two months before its story and that he had participated in roughly 300 transplant surgeries. His UCSF Health listing identifies his specialties.
His first donation
NBC Bay Area reported that Rickert was a medical student in 2008 when a radio discussion about organ donation prompted him to consider donating. Within months, he gave a kidney to a stranger; the outlet said the experience influenced his decision to become a transplant surgeon.
NBC Bay Area reported that Rickert’s decision to later donate part of his liver drew on his experience seeing living donors recover and his view that the potential benefit justified the risks. He also said generosity from others had enriched his life and that he wanted to pass it on. These personal details come from NBC Bay Area’s reporting, not independent interviews for this article.
