Rene Sorrentino

Type of Donation:       liver recipient

Age and Location:      Age 70 - Placentia, CA

Date of Transplant:           3/16/2014

Sponsor:                      Honored by OneLegacy

RENE’S STORY

Rene was a successful licensed marriage and family therapist, taught graduate school, and supervised other therapists working with abused children. Her life and career were great—until a routine physical exam revealed that a virus was slowly destroying her liver. Despite consulting with the best liver specialists in the greater Los Angeles area, there was little to be done that would slow down the decomposition of her liver.

The only possible hope was a transplant. She was getting progressively sicker and qualified to be placed on the transplant list at UCLA.

The two years of waiting that followed were laden with multiple hospitalizations and procedures to keep her alive until a liver was available. Rene’s health declined severely; she lost almost 100 pounds, including most of her muscle mass, rendering her unable to perform basic daily functions like walking, or even holding a glass of water. The toxins her liver could no longer process were affecting her brain, causing confusion and hallucinations.

In February of 2014, Rene was once again in the ICU, this time just barely hanging onto life. Her brother flew in from Florida, likely to say goodbye. He asked the doctor if he could take Rene back to Florida with him, where she would perhaps get a liver sooner. The doctor agreed she probably would, but she’d have to go immediately because she didn’t have much longer.

Rene was on the next flight to Orlando with her brother. After her arrival and admission into Florida Hospital and some updated testing, she was placed on their transplant list. The next day, laying in an ICU bed, Rene learned that a liver was available for her. She was as excited as she could be in her physically and mentally compromised state, happy to get that long awaited news. But immediately it dawned on her, someone had just experienced their worst tragedy. A person of faith, Rene prayed for that family who, despite their own overwhelming suffering, were able to consider the struggles of complete strangers and said yes to donation.

Rene has since been privileged to meet that family, and to learn about her young donor, Nicholas. She feels so honored to have an ongoing relationship with her donor’s family, who say that meeting Nicholas’s recipient makes donation real, changing the feeling of a senseless loss, into “being someone’s miracle.”

Rene is abundantly grateful for this miracle. Out of that gratitude, Rene volunteers her time as an Ambassador for OneLegacy where she speaks with conviction about how the blessing of donation saved her life.