Daughter Donates Liver to Save Mom's Life Called A Miraculous Opportunity

The St. Helena Star tells the story of a daughter who donated a portion of her liver to save her mother's life, part of a living donor liver transplant procedure performed by transplant surgeons at UCSF Medical Center.

Kimberly St. Clair-Davis calls donating a portion of her liver to her mother, Sandy Zablosky, a “miraculous opportunity.”

The miraculous part to St. Clair-Davis is a scenario that defies strict mathematics. Zablosky can have her entire liver removed, St. Clair-Davis can donate 40 percent of her own liver to Zablosky and both women can be made whole.

That 40 percent will grow to become a complete liver within Zablosky, replacing a liver damaged by an accident-related illness. Meanwhile, the 60 percent remaining within St. Clair-Davis will grow until it, too, is once again complete."

The need for a liver transplant arose because the mother, a nurse, became infected with hepatitis C after a needle stick in 1988"

"Zablosky’s need for a liver came about because of one life-changing second, a mere moment in time that sent her health on a downward spiral.

She moved to Napa from Ohio as a high school student and went on to become a nurse at St. Helena Hospital. In 1988, she got poked with a needle contaminated with hepatitis C, an illness that attacks the liver.

Symptoms became apparent after a few months and worsened over time. She worked an additional 10 years, then stopped because of the illness.