But experts predict our need for livers will soon explode, triggered by the Hepatitis C virus. Some health officials estimate that 75,000 Americans may need a liver transplant by the year 2010, compared with just 15,000 today. And many, like Guido, will turn to their friends for a portion of the most vital organ in the human body. Most people don't realize the number of body functions dependent on the soft, reddish-pink organ. Damaging your liver is like tipping over the first domino in a line.
Energy levels fall, blood fails to clot, concentration is lost, and heart and lung problems develop.
But unlike kidneys, each person has only one liver. Until partial liver transplants became possible in 1989, people couldn't donate their livers while alive. Still, the procedure didn't really take off until 1998. As of May 2000 there have been 2,745 partial livers transplanted between adults. Liver transplants from living donors are unquestionably the most dangerous of all transplants, he says.