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Liver transplant: who needs one, a deceased or living donor, the evaluation and the waiting list, the surgery, and living with a new liver
For anyone told they may need a new liver, waiting on the list, thinking of giving part of a liver, or living with a transplanted one, and the people who help them. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says: what a liver transplant is and who needs one; a deceased or a living donor; the evaluation, approval and the national waiting list; the surgery and coming home; and rejection, the medicines and caring for a new liver. It builds the questions to ask and prints a card. Nothing is saved.
Right now
- After a transplant: fever, chills, feeling very tired, belly pain, yellow skin or eyes, dark urine or light-colored stools? NIDDK says these can be signs of infection or rejection: talk with your doctor right away. Call your transplant team, after hours too.
- Vomiting blood, black or bloody stools, very confused or very hard to wake, or struggling to breathe? Call 911 (ours).
- At the end of your rope, or having thoughts of suicide, you or the person caring for you? Call or text 988, any hour, free (ours).
More help
- The liver on this site: Cirrhosis of the liver · When it’s hepatitis · Fatty liver disease · Biliary atresia · Getting ready for a liver biopsy.
- Living with a transplant: My medicines · Kidney transplant · When drinking or drugs have become a problem.
- For you: Caring for someone · Low-cost health care · Get ready for your appointment. In an emergency: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
An upset stomach, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for throwing up, diarrhea, heartburn and constipation, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
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This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor or nurse has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 21, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Liver Transplant, all five sections, last reviewed in March 2017. Ours: the 911 and 988 lines; keeping your phone charged and a bag ready while you wait; telling the team before you run out of a medicine you cannot pay for, and never stopping one on your own; the questions to ask; the card; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: its section on clinical trials, its references, its drawings, and the other pages it links to, which we did not read. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.