Ed Henry: I’m becoming a liver donor for the sister I love, so she can live a long and healthy life

When I broke the news by telephone to a friend that I'm about to donate my liver to my beautiful and loving sister, Colleen, the guy all but exploded on the other end of the line: "What are you TALKING about? That's great but you only have ONE liver, what are YOU going to do?"
Since I deliver the news for a living, I quickly realized by my friend's panicked reaction that I should have been much more precise with my language. And I also figured out that telling my story now could be of service to other families going through a similar health crisis.
GOFUNDME PAGE FOR COLLEEN HENRY'S RECOVERY
It is my sincere hope that talking about this journey for myself and Colleen, who has been bravely battling degenerative liver disease over the last few years, will help bring some awareness for the over 113,000 people in the U.S. waiting at this time for lifesaving organs (about 13,000 of whom need a healthy liver).
ARE YOU AT RISK FOR LIVER DISEASE?
But believe me, I am not trying to paint this as some grand plan to revolutionize organ donations in America. My goal is much simpler: I am determined to do whatever I can to give my sister the greatest gift of all, which quite simply is life.
My friend on the telephone wants what is best for my sister as well. But he, like just about every other person who I have confided in about this, knew very little about the magical power of the liver to quite literally grow again. So his concern was innocent and honest. He was just worried that in helping the sister I love, I would somehow be left with no liver at all, unlike say a kidney donation where I would at least wind up with one of two kidneys.
The reality is far less scary, and once I explained this to my friend he exclaimed: "I'm here for you – whatever you need!" That has been a constant refrain from so many good people, and now my sister and I do need something, and that is your prayers and well wishes.
On Tuesday I will be donating approximately 30 percent of my liver to my sister at a hospital in the Northeast. I will undergo about six hours of surgery to remove that portion of my liver, and in an operating room next door Colleen will go through about eight to 10 hours of surgery to entirely remove her diseased liver and replace it with part of my liver.
The liver is an amazing organ that will then regenerate in both me and my sister after the transplantation. While we know going in that nothing is for certain, if some semblance of the game plan is accomplished, we will each emerge from surgery with our own healthy liver.
So to answer my friend's original question, my one healthy liver will become two in a matter of hours. And then I am told that within four to six weeks, both of those portions of my liver will grow back to 100 percent in each