May 25, 2026
IN 30 SECONDSLiver disease requires planning.Hospitals have a responsibility to tell you about dual listing. You have the authority to be evaluated at more than one transplant center. Each center independently decides whether to add you to its waiting list. Travel and time off work are real costs, and they fall hardest on the patients who could benefit most.Knowing this early, long before the welcome folder arrives, gives you the most options. This article explains what dual listing is and what to do next. At the bottom, you will find three free tools to help you act on what you learn.Most patients hear about dual listing after they are evaluated at a transplant center, or even after they are listed for transplant. Sometimes, and quite often, it is mentioned in a passing manner, or in a way that does not fully register at the time you learn about it. Someone may have mentioned it during an early appointment. It may have been one bullet in a handout.Most often, it shows up in the welcom
May 21, 2026
IN 30 SECONDSA MELD score is a number from your blood work that tells the transplant system how urgently you need a liver. It is updated each time your labs are drawn. A higher number generally means greater urgency. A lower number generally means more time.MELD is one of several things your team is watching. It does not capture symptoms, quality of life, or how you will do after transplant. The number is information for the people taking care of you, not a verdict on you.This article explains what the number measures, how it is used to decide who is offered an organ first, what it does not measure, and what to ask your team. If you do not know your current MELD, you can calculate it from your blood work at nationalfriends.org.If you have just been told you have a MELD score, or if you have one and no one has fully explained it, you are in the right place. You do not have to read the whole article. The first few sections will give you what you need. The rest is there when you are ready
May 13, 2026
Friends of the National Liver Waiting List Foundation Friends of the National Liver Waiting List Foundation is a patient-and-caregiver-facing organization that helps families understand and navigate liver transplant access in the United States. We focus on clear, practical guidance about how the UNOS/OPTN system works, what options patients are allowed to pursue, and how families can advocate effectively without unnecessary confusion or conflict.More than 9,000 adults in the United States were on the liver transplant waiting list at the end of 2022, the most recent year of complete OPTN/SRTR data. Roughly 12 percent of patients on the list each year die or are removed because they have become too sick to transplant. A major reason is that many very sick patients do not appear “sick enough” under a single scoring system, leaving them on the list for long periods with little progress.That score is MELD, the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease. MELD is used to estimate short-ter
May 12, 2026
If you are caring for someone with liver disease, you are doing one of the hardest kinds of work there is. Some of it is medical. Most of it is logistical. All of it is exhausting in a way that is hard to describe to anyone who has not done it. We have done it. We know.Before transplant, the days can feel like a rotating set of labs, scans, appointments, symptoms that change by the hour, and paperwork that seems to multiply when you look away. Two national organizations exist specifically to help family caregivers carry that load. Both have been doing this work for decades. Neither costs anything to use.Caregiver Action NetworkCaregiver Action Network is a national nonprofit that has supported family caregivers for more than 30 years. They focus on education, peer community, and practical resources. Their Caregiver Toolbox is a free online resource that includes guides on medication management, communication with medical teams, financial and legal basics, and self-care for caregivers.
April 24, 2026
Living Donor Protection Act update for donor families and transplant patientsHere is where things stand today, April 23, 2026.The Living Donor Protection Act LDPA moved forward on February 26, 2026, when the Senate HELP Committee voted to advance S.1552. (National Kidney Foundation)On March 11, 2026, it was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar for a full Senate vote. (BillTrack50)As of today, it has not passed the full Senate, it has not passed the House, and it has not been signed into law. (BillTrack50)What the bill is all aboutInsurance protectionsThis bill says life, disability, and long term care insurers cannot deny coverage or raise premiums just because someone chose to be a living organ donor, unless there is a specific, unique actuarial reason tied to that person. (U.S. Senate HELP Committee)Job and leave protectionsIt makes it unmistakably clear that recovery from living donation qualifies under FMLA, so donors can take time to heal without gambling with their job or be
