Organ donors in nation’s largest liver transplant chain meet the patients whose lives they saved

April 16, 2026

In a ceremony filled with tears of gratitude, embraces of joy and the recognition of a remarkable first-of-its-kind accomplishment, seven liver transplant patients met the organ donors who saved their lives. On cue, they each opened a box that held the name of the person to whom they will forever be linked. Each donor learned the name of the patient whose life they saved with a portion of their liver, and each recipient finally knew the identity of the person whose liver now lives within their body.

“It just means everything in the world to me,” said Jody Dietert upon meeting his donor, 39-year-old Robert McDonald. “I was just months from death. I didn’t have long. He gave me a second chance with my grandchildren,” said Dietert, 50, of Carrizo Springs as he gave a mighty bear hug to the Kansas City donor who made this chain of liver transplants possible.

The donor who made the seven-pair chain work

This seven-pair living donor liver exchange performed at University Health Transplant Institute is the largest known liver transplant chain in the country. Six of the donors agreed to give portions of their livers to loved ones but learned they were not medically compatible. They then agreed to give to others in return for their intended recipients receiving transplants. The seventh donor, McDonald, was the person who made it all work. He was just willing to give— no strings attached. He originally intended to donate to a friend who received a transplant through a different process. But the more he learned about living organ donation, and that his liver would fully grow back, the more committed he became to donating. It was McDonald’s selfless gift that enabled the transplant team to match the seven donors with seven recipients, creating the largest living donor liver chain in the country.

Skill, experience and a commitment to living donation

Each living donor’s liver regenerates within months after surgery, and the donated portion grows into a fully functioning liver in the recipient. This remarkable biological process, coupled with our liver transplant team’s unmatched surgical expertise, invaluable experience, use of robotic technology and the large pool of potential living donors made the seven-pair exchange possible.

“This really could not have been done without our work over the past five or six years, building up to this moment,” said Dr. Tarunjeet Klair, a transplant surgeon and surgical director of the liver program at University Health Transplant Institute.

“We now have a big enough pool of donors and recipients in one transplant center to create this large of a match,” said Klair explaining the large number of living donors helps to overcome medical and anatomical incompatibilities.

It takes a minimum of four highly trained liver transplant surgeons per operation — two for the donor and two for the recipient — usually working simultaneously in two operating rooms for about eight hours. To successfully complete seven of these surgeries over a period of seven weeks required extraordinary coordination.

“We now have the expertise in surgery, the surgeons we need to do this number of surgeries week after week, and the operating room support available. We have the hospital and infrastructure support. This is big in many different ways,” he explained.

Power of living donation

Dr. Klair has a vision for the future with the aim of saving the most lives possible. He is planning for larger liver exchanges at University Health Transplant Institute. He’s also hoping the success of this seven-pair chain spurs other programs around the country to build vigorous living donor programs, and to attempt their own multiple-pair liver transplants.

“If this news reaches wide and far to other centers and somebody else looks at this and says, maybe we can do this — that would make my day,” said Klair.

Here’s where you can learn more about our living liver donor program and how to become a donor: Living Liver Donor | San Antonio | University Health | University Health.

Media coverage of transplant chain included: