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Love your neighbor .................


Shelton mom donating her liver to neighbor: 'I love her for it'
By Elisa Jaffe Published: Sep 10, 2015 at 6:35 PM PDT

You can watch video at link ............
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Shelton-Mom-Donating-Her-Liver-To-Neighbor-326527861.html?tab=video&c=y


SHELTON, Wash. -- On a rural road in Shelton where neighbors call on each other if their fields need to be hayed, one neighbor has stepped forward to save another's life.

Three houses down from where Kailyn McIver grew up, lives a mom 10 years older than Kailyn who has more in common with McIver than their family farms or babysitting history.

McIver's mom babysat Jaime McClanahan-Cuzik, Cuzik later babysat McIver, and now McIver babysits Cuzik's girls.

But 23-year-old McIver needs more than her neighbor's help -- she needs Cuzik's liver.

She spends much of her life in hospital beds and emergency rooms. She can't work and had to drop out of school.

McIver has suffered a rare genetic disorder since she was 13 that prevents protein in her body from breaking down. Instead it releases ammonia, poisoning her system. A specialist in D.C. said she needed a liver transplant.

"He told me, basically, if we didn't get this under control it's like a death by a thousand papercuts," McIver said.

McIver asked her neighbor to be her caregiver if she got a transplant. She needed someone other than a relative on standby to go to hospital appointments and be there if there was a problem.

"Heck yeah," said Cuzik.

But then the 33-year-old mom learned McIver was a good candidate for receiving a liver from a living donor not just a cadaver.

"I was the first one to apply, I was the only one to apply, and I am a match," Cuzik said.

Next month, Cuzik is donating 60 percent of her organ to her neighbor. It's expected to grow back within 6 months. The University of Washington medical center says this is the first adult to adult living donor liver transplant in the Pacific Northwest.

"I love her for it and I just can't thank her enough for doing this for me," said McIver.

Cuzik said she just wants her friend's suffering to stop.

Saturday, September 12th the neighbors are holding a fundraiser at 4 p.m. at 305 S. 1st Street in Shelton. Proceeds from the dinner and auction will help with expenses not covered by insurance.