West Virginia couple becomes part of milestone achievement as husband donates part of liver to his wife.
In 2010, Kelli Estep’s life changed forever. The nurse from Lincoln County, West Virginia discovered that she would eventually need a liver transplant.
Ten years later, she had the lifesaving transplant at UC Health thanks to a generous gift from an unlikely donor – her husband, James.
Kelli first noticed a change when she started having severe abdominal pain. The pain was so unbearable that she went to the emergency department at a local hospital. Her primary care physician then recommended she see a hematologist, a doctor who specializes in conditions in the blood and immune system.
Results from a liver biopsy revealed that Kelli had stage 3 cirrhosis, a form of advanced liver disease. Because there was not a gastroenterologist, a liver specialist, close to her in West Virginia, Kelli began traveling to a health system out of state every three months for consultation.
Kelli was placed on the national transplant list but likely would not have the transplant until her Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score increased.
"As the years went on, I just kept getting sicker, but my MELD score didn’t show it, so my doctor told me about the possibility of a living donor transplant," said Kelli
A living donor liver transplant is another option for patients who need to have a transplant but may not be able to wait for a deceased donor match. It is possible Kelli would not have been able to make it to that point.
James decided to go through testing to see if he would be eligible to donate part of his liver to his wife. He was a perfect match.
I told her that if I was a match, I would donate. I wanted to help save my wife’s life," said James
Kelli and James decided to come to UC Health, the region’s leader in compassionate, innovative liver expertise. UC Health is the first health system in Greater Cincinnati to offer living donor transplants, which gives more hope to patients and their families.
They made the three-hour trip from their hometown in West Virginia to Cincinnati to see Shimul Shah, MD, UC Health surgeon and the James and Catherine Orr Endowed Chair in Liver Transplantation, director of the Division of Transplantation and professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Our goal is to ensure that patients never have to leave Cincinnati to receive the transplant care they need. Living donor liver transplants give patients another option if their condition continues to decline and they’d prefer not to wait on the transplant list,
Dr. Shah and Cutler Quillin, MD, UC Health surgeon and assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the UC College of Medicine, performed Kelli’s transplant.
“UC Health will continue to offer world-class care in the region by performing these life-changing procedures,” Dr. Quillin said. “Kelli now has the opportunity to return to her normal life.”
Despite how daunting a transplant procedure can feel, Kelli and James are thrilled to be the first to participate in a living donor liver transplant in Cincinnati.
“It was very exciting. We wanted to be the first so we could say we are the first. Our care team at UC Health knew what they were doing. We were never worried about that,” Kelli and James said.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the country, Kelli and James wanted to go through with the surgery. They felt safe throughout their entire stay at UC Medical Center and during their post-transplant appointments at the Hoxworth Center.
When asked if they would recommend their West Virginia friends and neighbors make the trip to UC Health for transplant care, Kelli and James enthusiastically said, “Yes!”
They also strongly encourage other patients and their families to consider living donor liver transplant surgery. Thanks to UC Health’s transplant team, Kelli and James will be able to celebrate their 20th anniversary and many more.