Episode 16: Transplant Recipient Series with special guest Alisha Hiebert

Show Notes

Alisha Hiebert, Liver Recipient and Transplant Lyfe Community Manager joins Tiffany and Kristin as special guest to talk about her experience receiving a Liver transplant and what life has looked like since her transplant.

Today a fun fact instead of a quote: You are 6x more likely to need an organ transplant than to become a deceased organ donor American Journal of Transplant “Lifetime probabilities of needing an organ transplant versus donating an organ after death; Shemie SD, Hornby L, Chandler J, Nickerson P, Burkell J. Lifetime probabilities of needing an organ transplant versus donating an organ after death. Am J Transplant. 2011 Oct;11(10):2085-92. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-6143.2011.03675.x. Epub 2011 Aug 3. PMID: 21812924.

Mission

Lyfebulb is an innovation accelerator that bridges the gap between patient communities and the healthcare industry by working directly with patients and care partners to generate insights, build new solutions, and bring revolutionary products to market. Transplant Lyfe is a sub community born from Lyfebulb.

Transplant Lyfe advocates for patient-driven innovation; They are thinkers and innovators. They  are patients and care partners ourselves.

Alisha's Bio

Alisha is a fiery, poetic redhead living on the Canadian prairies. After complications due to a metabolic liver condition she was diagnosed with shortly after birth, she received a liver transplant in August 2020. Thanks to the generous gift of life from not one but two donors, Alisha has begun what she calls the beautiful second life.  She is a grief embodiment worker, speaker and writer raising awareness for organ donation and medical trauma. She is also a trauma and grief doula. She lives with her husband and their rescue puppy and is a lover of coffee and all things cozy.

https://transplantlyfe.com/

Alisha Hiebert - Lyfebulb

Alisha Hiebert, SBD – Still Birth Day Stillbirthday Birth & Bereavement Doulas® (SBD) provide support prior to, during and after birth in any trimester.  SBD doulas are both birth doulas, and bereavement doulas.

Read the article Rebirth: Rebirth - Lyfebulb

A passage from Alisha's article Rebirth: “The last thing I remember before that moment was waiting to be taken into the OR. I’d already crossed the sterile line, through the double doors into the place where I had to do this alone. There was no one to carry me across the threshold, no one to sit beside me and hold my hand as I crossed over from one life to the next. It was only me, alone. I stared at the ceiling and tried not to cry. I concentrated on the sounds of the nursing shift changeover, with the morning nurses shuffling in with their hands full of coffee and the night nurses with their tired eyes grabbing their bags and heading towards the door. Back out of the land of transition, back into the world of the living. Something about waiting in that OR felt like sacred and holy ground. I kept waiting for someone to walk through the doors that I knew, for someone to come and talk to me to relieve my fears, but every moment I waited pressed into me the fact that I was alone for this part….And then I remember waking up. For all intents and purposes, I was alone for this part too. I had to carry myself over the threshold. I had to cross over all on my own, from one life to the next. The act of healing is a solitary journey. Doctors and nurses and loved ones cared for me but in the end this work was the kind I needed to do alone. And so I woke up, in this formless nothing, and I don’t remember much except that I felt new life stirring inside me. There’s no good way to describe it except for I felt like I was alive again. Right where my liver rests, I could feel what felt like a glowing, amber light that cradled my body from the inside out….It was like death, but better. It was rebirth.”

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