Friends of the National Liver Waiting List Foundation

08/27/2026

Each transplant center decides who goes on its own list. The criteria are set by the program, not by a national rule. Being turned down at one center is one center's answer, not the final word on whether you are a candidate.

You can also be listed at more than one center at the same time. It is called dual listing, and it is allowed. Most of us have heard about it but most of us don't know where to start.

There are over 130 liver transplant programs in the United States. Their wait times and their listing criteria are not the same, and that information is public.

Compare Centers lets you filter by the things that matter in your own situation, so you can see which programs fit. We do not tell anyone where to go. We show you what is there.

nationalfriends.org/your_options/
Questions? 1-866-521-6319

07/16/2026

I want to share something remarkable, because we spend a lot of time here on the hard truths, and this one is pure hope.
Northwestern Medicine just did something that had never been done before. A 36 year old woman named Elizabeth Wehrle, born with cystic fibrosis, had already received a double lung transplant back in 2017. Her body started rejecting those lungs, and on top of that her liver and her kidney were failing. She came to them on a ventilator and on ECMO, which is about as close to the edge as a person can be.
In one operation they gave her a second set of lungs, along with a new liver and a new kidney. It is the first time in the United States that anyone has received four organs at once that included re transplanted lungs. Only seven quadruple transplants have ever been done in this entire country. She was discharged in under three weeks, and she is going home.
I am sharing this for a reason. When someone tells you that you are too complicated or too far gone, remember what a team like this just pulled off. The line for what is possible keeps moving. It does not mean everyone is a candidate for something like this, and it does not change the work in front of you today. But it is proof that the right team in the right place can do things that used to be unthinkable.
If you have ever been told there was no option left, I would love to hear your story. And if you are sitting in that place right now, please do not close the door before you have talked to a real transplant team. Sometimes the answer is somewhere you have not called yet.

Elizabeth Wehrle of Montezuma, Iowa, traveled to Chicago for a first-of-its-kind procedure that happened on March 22; will return home and reunite with her son on July 17

07/16/2026

Most transplant centers take self-referrals. Most patients have never been told.

Our updated dual listing article explains what that means, who benefits most, and the one number to check before choosing any center. Free, plain language, sourced from public OPTN and SRTR data.

nationalfriends.org/journey/

06/20/2026

06/08/2026

The call came at 10pm on a Friday night.

They told us to book the first flight in the morning.
Not to start driving. Not to come right now.
Just get on the earliest flight and be there by early afternoon.

We lived in one state.
The donor was in another.
The surgery was in a third.

We were dual listed.
At the local hospital we were listed at, the time window was narrow.
At the second hospital, the time window was open wider.

That window exists because of technology that keeps a donor organ viable long enough to give a family time to get there.
It is getting wider every year.

That is progress. That is what we track.

06/07/2026

I was told my MELD score meant I wasn't sick enough.

I was losing ground every day. Struggling to work. Struggling to think clearly. Struggling to be a father and a husband in the ways that mattered.

The number said I was fine.

The number was not the whole story.

In 2025 the medical establishment finally said the same thing officially. Your MELD score alone cannot determine your path to transplant. Your whole situation must now be considered.

I wish that rule had existed when we needed it.
It exists now. Use it.

06/06/2026

Nobody handed us a roadmap.
We made wrong turns.
We lost time we couldn't afford to lose.
This page exists so you don't have to.
We built the roadmap we wish we'd had.

3 people die every day waiting for a liver. If you're on the waitlist — or caring for someone who is — start here.

06/06/2026

Thousands of people are waiting for a liver transplant right now while being told their numbers don't qualify them.

They are declining. They are frightened. They are doing the math at 3am.

The number says they are fine.

We didn't start this because we had extra time.

We started it because we couldn't find anyone who had done it before us.

If you're looking for someone who gets it, you're in the right place.

06/06/2026

Hepatic Encephalopathy will not raise your MELD score.
It will empty your bank account.
It will end careers.
It will frighten your children.
It will follow you into every room of your house.
But on paper, it does not count.
Should it?