Liver donations from living donors are rare, and it’s even more rare for the donor to be a stranger, but Dan Droszcz is now cancer-free after a man he never met before gave him 60% of his liver.
"What it really was about was that we knew that Dan was a dad. They’ve got three kids, we’ve got two, and when we talked about it, we said if we were in that situation we would want somebody to do that for us,” Staehlin said.
The transplant took place Aug. 24, 2022. It was one of about 120 liver transplants Northwestern Medicine does a year, but this one between strangers stood out.The generosity moves Droszcz to tears. “I can’t believe there are people out there like that,” Droszcz said. The two met again on Monday, nearly eight weeks post-transplant, which is the same amount of time it takes for the liver to regenerate.Droszcz, now cancer-free, is feeling great too. “I feel amazing. I’m ready to live my life,” Droszcz said.