Waiting for organs to be donated often takes significant periods of times.

For that reason, living donor programs give people lifesaving options.

Dr. Abhinav Humar, clinical director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and chief of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Transplant Services, said these programs “are a very powerful way to help patients.”

Otherwise, he adds, patients’ health deteriorates progressively to the point of death or near-death.

Dr. Humar, one of the transplant surgeons with the UPMC Transplant Services team that performed the successful liver transplant of Tamaqua resident Jean Paslawsky, emphasized the value of living donors.

He said the majority of liver transplants – maybe 95 percent of them – involve donated livers from deceased people, but quickly added, “There are not enough livers and the waiting lists (to receive one) is quite long.”

He estimated about 12,000 to 13,000 liver transplants per year are needed. Between 8,000 and 9,000 livers are donated.

Because of that, UPMC, he said, has “made the push” to get more living donors, since parts of livers regenerate following transplants.

Living donor transplants “are not very common and not offered in very many places,” he said. But at UPMC, about 65% of the iiving donors come through the Living-Donor Liver Transplant program.

The value of the program, he said, is immeasurable. “By having a living donor, it bypasses the waiting list and eliminates the risk of a patient dying or getting more sick than they are.”

UPMC surgeons rank the hospital as the largest in the country to perform living donor liver transplants. “We have a lot of experience in it and treat patients from across the country. We have an expertise,” he said.

Dr. Humar encourages people who might want to be like Jeff Mathena, the Florida resident who donated part of his liver to Paslawsky, to find out more about the program. “Contact us and see if you qualify (to be a donor).”

For more information, visit UPMC.com/DonateLife, and to learn more about the Living Donor Liver Transplant program at UPMC, visit UPMC.com/LivingLiver.