After delivery, I slipped into a coma and was placed on life support as my organs shut down. Due to the severity of my condition, only one transplant center would even accept my case. And by the time I arrived there, I was in end-stage liver failure, my kidneys had ceased functioning, and I was in respiratory distress. I then underwent brain surgery when I began to hemorrhage into my brain. I received a liver transplant, had subsequent surgeries on my stomach and pancreas, lost my gallbladder, and my lung collapsed — twice. I now rely on immunosuppressives to ensure my body doesn’t reject my transplanted liver. This medication, and the research and development it took to create It, is just as essential to my continued well-being as the surgeries that initially saved my life.
