Shay Segura received some bad news in 1999 after donating blood. She learned that she had primary biliary cirrhosis, or PBC. The disease destroys the bile ducts of the liver. The disease is slow in developing but normally leads to a person's liver shutting down. Shay's only hope was a liver transplant, and she received one from her own son.
Shay first started the process of getting on the national transplant waiting list. However, her doctor told her that the wait would likely be too long, and she would die. It was recommended that she consider, and try to find, a suitable living donor. Her son, Bryan Cesario, stepped up to the plate to help his mom. He said, "I wanted to do it when I was 16 but you have to be 18." Shay didn't want him to do it, but he insisted. Both are now doing well and want people to know that living donation is an option for people needing liver transplants. In a living donor liver transplant, either the right or left lobe of the donor's liver is removed from the donor and then transplanted into the recipient. Then, the liver will regenerate itself within the donor in about two months.

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