Daviess County woman encourages organ donation after a life-saving transplant

Sep. 25—Organ donation helped save Daviess County resident Krista Hall after 14 years of battling an autoimmune disease, and now she wants her story to inspire others to become donors.

Hall became ill while pregnant with her daughter, Makayla Brown. After giving birth in 2004, she was diagnosed with primary biliary cholangitis.

The disease, according to the Mayo Clinic, causes chronic inflammation in the liver, which can lead to bile duct damage, irreversible scarring of liver tissue and, eventually, liver failure.

She said she lived with the illness for 13 years before being placed on a transplant list in 2017, finally receiving a transplant in 2018.

During the time between her diagnosis and the transplant, she said she had many doctors visits to try and control the disease, constantly worrying if she was going to make it to see the milestones in her daughter's life.

"I grieved a lot before the transplant," she said. "I looked at my daughter everyday and thought I would never get to see her drive, graduate high school, get married, see her children. Now, sometimes I will just look at her and smile and tell her, 'I love you!' One day, I let her drive in a parking lot, and it made me smile, and I thought, 'Yes I am seeing this! I get to see her drive!' "

Finally getting the transplant, she said, allowed her to experience those moments.

Hall said getting on the transplant list was a long process because a patient typically has to be in dire need before being considered for a transplant, and once they are placed on the list, they have to find an appropriate match.

She said that was another concern for her because she has a rare blood type.

"Finding a match for a rare blood type is going to be hard," she said, "... so I worried about being put on the list in the first place and then getting a transplant because I had to take a ... whole liver. I couldn't have a partial because the disease would take on the new part."

Following her transplant in 2018, she said she had to make regular doctors visits to ensure everything was on track for healing, taking about a year or so to get back on her feet and to a sense of normalcy.

"I had to build up my strength just to walk," she said.

Now, Hall is affiliated with a Louisville-based group called Second Chance at Life — Kentucky Team, which is a nonprofit dedicated to helping provide a support system for donor recipients, donor families and potential recipients.

The mission of the group is to promote organ donation.

Hall said organ donation could save a life, and she encourages people to register as an organ donor.

"There's so many people that are in need of organs ... that, you know, they'll die without a life-saving organ," she said.

The organization will also host a golf scramble Saturday, Sept. 25 with registration starting at 1 p.m. at the Pearl Club in Owensboro.

Proceeds will go to the Second Chance of Life — Kentucky Team to help send donor recipients to the Transplant Games of America.

Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360