By Jeff Kelley 

“Do you know there are people who are trapped in a place where they want someone to die so that they can live?” 

For Danielle Green, it was this thought that echoed through her mind as she explored the idea of living donation — voluntarily giving one’s organ, or multiple organs, to someone in need. She’d read an article online about a man who died and donated his organs, later saw another story about transplantation, and finally watched a TV interview with a transplant surgeon who spoke of the importance of living donation. 

“After that third time, I thought it was a sign for me to look into it more,” she said. “I believe living donation was something that was placed on me. It had to be a higher power to plant that seed and to manifest into what it has.”

Indeed, Danielle has since donated two organs — a kidney, and later a portion of her liver — to two complete strangers, saving their lives. She’s never met either of the recipients. 

“My living donor journey started with a thought, ‘What if I could?’” recalled the 48-year-old. “And that thought ended with: ‘I did.’” 

‘I felt like I’d cheated myself’ 

When she began researching living donation, she planned to give a portion of her liver, which regenerates in weeks, but got scared off by the scarring and six to eight weeks of recovery time.  

“Some of those scars looked like the Nike emblem,” Danielle said, “and that scared me.” 

So, she pivoted to the kidney, which offers a faster recovery and less scarring. Plus, she thought, the need for both organs are great. Of the more than 115,000 people on the national Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network waiting list, more than 97,000 people need kidneys and roughly 9,000 need a liver. 

“I took the easy way out, and donated my kidney,” she said. That was September 2022.  

But a year later, Danielle knew she still had more to do. Friends and family thought she was crazy to go explore a second donation round.  

“In my heart, I felt like I'd cheated myself. A kidney wasn’t what I set out to do,” she said. “I’m gonna keep going until the doctors tell me ‘no.’” 

Since the hospital where she had the kidney transplant doesn’t perform liver transplants, Danielle was referred to VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center.  

And her concerns about scarring? Turns out, VCU Health could alleviate her fears there, too. 

At the forefront of innovative robotic surgeries 

After six months of comprehensive testing — everything from bloodwork, imaging, cardiovascular screenings, and psychological evaluation — Green was approved to donate her liver and chose Leap Day — Feb. 29, 2024 — for her transplant because “it’s not like any ordinary day,” she said. On the recipient’s side, physicians are able to find, schedule, and prepare the patient in need. (The two have never met and are unknown to one another). 

Her surgical team included surgical director of living donor liver transplantation Vinay Kumaran, M.D., interim surgical director of liver transplant, Seung Duk Lee, M.D. and assistant transplant surgeon, Yuzuru Sambommatsu, M.D. 

You can live with one kidney. The liver grows back. We can save more lives, and you can take someone off the list so that others move up. We don’t have to make people feel guilty that they are waiting for someone to die so that they can live. 

Danielle Green, VCU Health patient 

During her first surgery in 2022, the kidney was removed via an incision near her belly button. For the liver, two years later, Lee — at the helm of the robotic surgical system — was able to use the same scar as well as a second incision similar to that of a Cesarean section to remove the organ. 

“Minimally invasive surgery offers a huge cosmetic benefit for kidney and liver donors,” said Lee, who believes Danielle’s dual minimally invasive kidney and fully robotic liver donations to be one of few ever performed. 

And that’s because double living donors are exceedingly rare, he notes. A 2023 peer-reviewed article in Clinical Transplantation uncovered only 101 double living donors between 1981 to 2021, with no donor deaths reported and positive outcomes for all recipients. 

“Patients like Danielle are incredible ambassadors for living donation. By no means do we ask people to become a dual donor, but the fact she was willing to do so is incredibly heroic. Her experience shows more individuals that they, too, can save a life, and they can do so safely, with minimal scarring and a shorter recovery," said David Bruno, M.D., FACS, director of Hume-Lee Transplant Center. “Hume-Lee is a world leader in pioneering living donor organ donations and allowing people to give the greatest gift possible to a loved one or complete stranger in critical need.” 

Living donors at VCU Health pay nothing for any part of their care and are even given a recovery room in the Gumenick Suites. That made the experience more comfortable for Danielle, whose daughter was able to stay with her in the hospital the entire time.  She was in the hospital for the standard five days, with weeks of recovery after. Despite the minimal scarring, “recovery was a little more intense than I was expecting,” she admitted.  

Why become a living organ donor? 

Danielle says she’s always been “a little bit different” than others. Living donation was her calling in life.  

“Normal, everyday people don't think about things like this. When most people want to help someone, they may throw money at a cause,” she said. “I had someone tell me after my kidney donation, ‘Next time you feel passionate about something, let’s sign up for a fundraising walk.’” 

Teresa Crenshaw, living donor coordinator at Hume-Lee, says working with Danielle was a privilege. “This is a calling for her,” Crenshaw said. “A very willing, upfront, sweet lady.” 

Patients like Danielle are incredible ambassadors for living donation. By no means do we ask people to become a dual donor, but the fact she was willing to do so is incredibly heroic. 

David Bruno, M.D., FACS, director of VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center 

Danielle even considered going back a third time — but Lee, chuckling, told her scar tissue and long-term safety would be a concern in a third procedure. “Not possible,” he said.  

During her research, Danielle also discovered that “there were not a lot of brown people” in stories of living donation. Of those on the transplant waiting list, African Americans make up about a third of the list, and communities of color around 60% of the total. Black Americans are also three times as likely as white people to experience kidney failure yet wait longer than most for those organs in part because African Americans have lower rates of living donors coming forward compared to other races.  

“I know the brown community, from my own personal experiences, are not always trusting of the medical profession,” Danielle said. “I would like to see more brown people try the living donation process. You can live with one kidney. The liver grows back. We can save more lives, and you can take someone off the list so that others move up. We don’t have to make people feel guilty that they are waiting for someone to die so that they can live.” 

Find out how you can save a life by becoming a living organ donor

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