Shari Urgently Needs Life-Saving Liver Transplant

My name is Shari Fuertes, and I am a 64-year-old wife and mother. In 2012, I was diagnosed with Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC), a chronic autoimmune disease that gradually destroys the bile ducts and leads to liver failure. For the past 13 years, I have managed this disease with medication and regular monitoring, but recently it has progressed to cirrhosis, and I now urgently need a liver transplant to survive.

This transplant is not optional — it is literally a matter of life and death. I am in the process of being added to the transplant list at AdventHealth Liver Transplant Institute in Orlando, Florida, with surgery planned for June–July this year. My MELD score is currently 18, and time is critical. I will require a living donor, and I hope that one of my sons may be a match. It is crucial that a living donor match is found soon so that my condition does not worsen to the point where a full liver transplant becomes unavoidable.