Candidates in Marcos' program are first screened by interviews with Mary Ellen Olbrisch, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. Patients are interviewed to determine any presence of mental incapacity, depression or a bipolar disorder. Sometimes spouses are brought in as well. Potential living donors are also examined medically to determine their health. They're informed of the risks before any surgery is done.
Complications can arise.
Medical literature currently suggests less than 1 percent of living liver donors face complications. Among those seen at MCV were atelectasis, IV phlebitis, and some skin pressure sores, said Dr. Robert Fisher, director of the liver transplant program at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. The implications MCV and other transplant centers might expect to see more living donor to stranger transplants in the future, said Dr. Fisher. The unrelated liver transplant broadens the pool of potential donors for patients on the waiting list. The living liver donations could mean a second chance for some of the 13,519 people who were on the waiting list for a liver on July 28, 1999.