And as soon as I heard that, I looked at my wife and said, "I would do that in a heartbeat", got up and made the phone call.
We met in the waiting room, and we were both having blood work done. And that was probably... probably one of the best days in my life.
I tapped him on the shoulder, and I said, "Are you Ken Schuler?" and he goes, "Yes, I am",Ｉsaid, "I am Debbie Parker".
And we just embraced right there, and the whole waiting room started crying.
I was trying to save somebody's life, and she was, you know, wanting me to save her life.
And when somebody hugs you around the neck like that, it's...it's...it still gets to me, thinking about it.
But even at that point, they couldn't be sure if Ken would qualify as a donor. Earlier, Debbie's brother had come forward to be a donor, but he didn't qualify medically.
It is a highly risky, it's a risky operation. Dr Amadeo Marcos did the first unrelated living donor liver transplant a year ago and has done 27 since then. Most have been between husbands and wives.
We were forced to do this technique, because we don't...we, ourselves did not have enough livers for our own list, and our patients were...were dying.
There are only a handful of centers in the United States offering living donor liver transplant in adults. If more widely used, doctors say, it's an option that can make a significant dent in the organ shortage.
But ethically, can you ask someone to undertake the risk of donating part of their liver?
I think you can. I don't think it's unethical to have a wife volunteer to have a piece of her liver given to her child or to her husband. It's probably not even unethical to do it for friends.
But you are operating on a healthy person who doesn't have anything wrong with him, and I think we should always remember that.
Ken Schuler says he was not concerned about the possible risk of dying or becoming disabled.
One week after Ken gave part of his liver to Debbie, his liver regenerated or grew back to its original size.
He is my life preserver. He doesn't like me to call him a hero, so I call him my life preserver.
What does it feel like to be able to do that for another person like that?
Oh, this is the hard part, it's...it's the best thing, you know, I've ever done. It...it gives you a feeling that you can't describe. And the more people, excuse me, the more people we can get to...to do this, they...they don't understand what they're missing.
Missing the chance to save another person's life.