Dec. 5: Brothers and Sisters

After managing liver disease for 15 years, Dennis Fearn of Long Island, New York, began losing weight and feeling sick.  His doctor told him he’d need a new liver, but the wait could be eight years to obtain one from a deceased donor.  It would be possible, however, to obtain a portion from a live donor because the liver regenerates.  When Fearn’s sister, Susan Brown, heard this, her eyes lit up and she said, “I’d like to do that.”

Explaining her reason to the New York Daily News, Brown said, “[Dennis] took care of my brother, my father and my mother when they became sick…The right thing to do was to take care of him.”

It was the first live-donor liver transplant performed at the Montefiore Einstein Center for Transplantation in the Bronx, New York.

After the transplant, Fearn felt grateful: “Brothers and sisters do what they can for each other, but she went well above.”

Let us do good to all men, and especially to those who

are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10)

Jesus, You gave your life out of love.  Help us to respond in

the same way to life’s challenges.