You have just been told you need a liver transplant. Now what?
There are many important things to consider when you’re preparing for a liver transplant, including which transplant center to choose. The UW Health Transplant Center in Madison, Wisconsin is a Center of Excellence for most insurance networks, and a Veterans Affairs-approved transplant center for liver and kidney/liver.
Our highly experienced team has performed more than 3,000 liver transplants. We perform four times more liver transplants than any other program in Wisconsin. We consistently lead the nation in patient outcomes, even though we serve patients whose conditions are so complex that other centers would not consider them for transplant. We care for our patients throughout their life and know what they need to avoid rejection and retain their new organ.
How does the UW Health Liver Transplant Program wait times compare to other centers?
Most UW Health patients wait about six months to get a liver transplant. UW Health is usually faster than other hospital is our region and nation. According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) getting a transplant faster has the largest impact on survival after listing.
Do you serve living liver donors?
We are a certified living liver-donor transplant center with five experienced surgeons providing living liver donation and transplant surgery. We are the only center actively transplanting living liver transplant patients in Wisconsin.
What if I'm already listed with another transplant program?
If you are already on a waiting list, you can double list with our center and increase your chance of receiving an organ offer. We have some of the shortest wait times in the nation.
What insurance do you accept?
We are a Center of Excellence for most insurance networks, including United Healthcare and Optum Health Insurance. We are a Veteran’s Administration approved center for liver and liver/kidney transplantation. Our transplant financial counselors assist patients with their insurance and financial considerations.
Where do you care for patients with advanced liver disease?
We serve patients with advanced liver disease in Appleton, WI; Green Bay, WI; Madison, WI; Marshfield, WI; Rockford, IL; Waukesha, WI; and Wausau, WI. Transplant surgeries and some tests specific to transplant patients are at University Hospital in Madison, WI.
How do you care for patients?
Our team of nationally acclaimed experts works together to ensure each patient receives care that is tailored to their specific needs. We provide thorough education to our patients – and the people supporting them – and work together to make sure every patient can return to a good quality of life. Our patients are supported throughout the entire transplant journey, including the decision-making process, transplant evaluation, waiting period, surgery and hospitalization. Transplant recipients have a nurse coordinator to ensure their healthcare needs are appropriately managed for the rest of their life.
How does UW Health compare to other hospitals?
U.S. News & World Report recently ranked UW Health University Hospital as the number one hospital in Wisconsin.
I have cirrhosis. Where can I learn more about a liver transplant?
Some people who have cirrhosis will benefit from liver transplant. Transplant is a complex process, and our team will work with you to determine if you require evaluation for transplant now, or if you may in the future.
Jerome’s liver transplant story
As a young man, Jerome originally joined the Navy as means to pay for college. He was a Navy medic, but quickly decided he wanted to be a nurse. After he left the Navy, he worked as an emergency room nurse, for 10 years before returning to the Navy to serve as the only nurse on the USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf. After he developed an allergy to latex, Jerome left the Navy and returned to civilian life as a nursing supervisor.
Jerome loved his work. Life was good. He was happily married and spent time keeping up his house and large property. His lengthy nursing career gave him the insight for how he should be cared for if his health ever changed. He never guessed how much he would need that help.
Jerome began experiencing stomach problems. Tests showed he suffered from undetermined non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. His abdomen would fill with fluid that needed to be drained, and for months, that was his routine. To ease this burden, a shunt was placed, and new medications were prescribed. As a nurse, he grasped everything he was experiencing and asked a lot of questions. He understood exactly what his doctors meant when they said, "It's time that you're listed for a liver transplant."
Originally listed at a Chicago transplant program and knowing that he was low on the waitlist, Jerome did some research. He learned UW Health is approved to serve Veterans and works in tandem with the specialists at William S. Middleton Memorial Veteran's Hospital liver transplant program. Jerome made the 4-hour drive to Madison, WI, to meet the team and be evaluated. That's where he learned that he needed a heart bypass, or he wouldn't survive a liver transplant.
After he recovered from the bypass surgery, Jerome was placed on the active liver transplant wait list. He continued to struggle with his liver issues, lost his appetite - and 70 pounds - and "looked ancient," Jerome said. "I got tired so easily and had absolutely no strength." Within weeks of wait listing, Jerome received his gift of life.
Although he was a nurse, transplant was new to Jerome, but "they explained everything very thoroughly, in a good way, that impressed me," Jerome said.
"I know what it means to have good care, and everyone was amazing. When I saw that everyone was happy - from housekeeping to the doctors - I knew I was in the best place. I thought to myself, 'I'd love to be in charge of this unit.' That's how pleasant it was."
Within weeks, Jerome's appetite returned. He's back at home and enjoying the life he knew before he became ill.
Peter's living liver donation story
Peter Aerts made the choice to give the gift of life to someone else.
But before that happened, he experienced grief—raw, profound grief—when he lost his sister, MaryJo. That grief propelled him to make a decision that would change someone else’s life.
Four years ago, MaryJo became sick with a disease that affected her liver while she was involved in relief work in Afghanistan. For a while, it looked like she might benefit from a liver transplant, so Peter—who is now 32—started looking into the possibility of becoming a living liver donor. Sadly, MaryJo passed away, and as Peter and his family mourned her loss, he kept the idea of living liver donation in the back of his mind.
Then, an acquaintance from high school posted a notice on social media that his baby daughter was looking for a living liver donor. The child needed a donor who was small in size, so Peter couldn’t have helped, but again it gave him pause. “It made me think that if it would have worked, that would have been something I would consider doing,” he said.
When Peter heard a radio interview about living liver donation, he decided the signs were too obvious to ignore. He called UW Health and made an appointment to undergo the necessary health checks for liver donation.
While people who donate a kidney are able to do so because their other kidney can work by itself, humans only have one liver. That means that we are only able to donate part of our liver—over time, the donated portion grows back. However, it’s a more complicated surgery, and a more challenging recovery.
Peter learned that firsthand. “It was a humbling process,” he said. “But the doctors were clear about everything that was going to happen. The people who were caring for me at UW Health were tough when they needed to be tough and caring when they needed to be caring. I really appreciated everything they did for me.”
Just four weeks after he gave the gift of life, Peter started back at work part time. A month later, he was back to teaching chemistry and physics. Now, he’s doing most of the activities he did before his surgery, including working out and playing basketball and volleyball with friends.
He has no idea who ended up receiving his liver—and that’s OK with him. He didn’t make his decision because he wanted gratitude—rather, he gave the gift of life because he felt it was the right thing to do. “I’m a man of faith,” he said, “and I feel like sometimes we’re in certain life situations where we’re meant to do something with it.”
For care closer to your home, our liver transplant team serves patients in six locations in Illinois and Wisconsin.
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