<div>My name is David Anthony McIntyre, I am a 61 year old Father of two beautiful daughters. I have never been much of a drinker and in fact haven’t touched alcohol for over 30 years. I don’t smoke or do drugs unless a doctor prescribes them to me.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I’m probably the last person you would expect to get liver disease but I did. It was diagnosed roughly about a year and an half ago and has progressed to what is called “end stage liver disease” or cirrhosis.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>But there are many complications that can develop along with the cirrhosis, there are secondary and tertiary diseases that can develop.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>When your liver stops working correctly you can develop a secondary disease called a <strong>“portosystemic shunt”</strong> (also known as a liver or hepatic shunt).
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This is a rare medical condition in which blood from your digestive organs does not reach the liver. Unfortunately, I have developed this secondary disease along with the cirrhosis.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The liver typically receives blood from two sources:
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The hepatic artery delivers oxygen-rich blood from the heart.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The portal vein moves blood from the spleen, stomach, pancreas, and intestines into the liver.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Blood from the portal vein is rich in nutrients absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, which the liver processes before the blood flows back into the heart through the hepatic veins.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>If it does not then you can also develop <strong>“Hepatic Encephalopathy”.</strong> Which I have also developed and suffer from.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>A <strong>“liver shunt”</strong> is an unnatural connection that develops between the portal vein and systemic veins. The shunt causes blood to <strong>bypass the liver</strong> partially or completely, causing complications.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Due to the “Liver Shunts” I developed I also developed this tertiary disease, <strong>“Hepatic Encephalopathy”</strong> which causes toxins in my blood that the liver was supposed to clear out to make it to my brain where it causes much confusion, odd mental episodes, forgetfulness and at it’s worst blacking out.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Often times when this disease is found it’s well developed and can cause a person who blacks out to go into a coma and die.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I have had two episodes of this blacking out which results in a long hospitalization each time. Luckily, I survived those.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>It is a constant battle to maintain the proper medications in my blood that keep this secondary disease at bay by binding to toxins particularly Ammonia and gets rid of it through your waste.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The Liver Clinic at the University of Washington concurred with my local doctors that I am now in <strong>“End Stage Liver Failure”. </strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I’ve been told by no less than five doctors on that team that I likely have up to two years before this takes my life. And it has already been one year since they told me that.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>They tell me the only hope is a <strong>“liver transplant” </strong>and they put me on the national liver transplant wait list. The problem is that there are far more people needing transplants than there are donated healthy cadaver livers available.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Many times people graciously sign on to be a liver donor but after they pass away it’s found that they didn’t have a healthy enough liver for transplant and that further limits the number of available livers.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The very best option then is to find someone close to you who meets all the criteria and the will to be a <strong>“Living Liver Donor”</strong>.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This is where surgeons work on both the donor and the recipient at the exact same time. They take a portion of the donors liver and place it into the recipient where their diseased liver used to be.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>these are generally successful transplants and the amazing human body will actually regrow full sized and completely functioning livers in both the donor and the recipient.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This is what I am hoping to accomplish. I contacted everyone I know to see if they would be willing to donate. I spoke with over 50 people about this but most were either too old, or to heavy or has high risk behaviors that instantly eliminates them from consideration.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The stars finally aligned for me when a friend of mine graciously volunteered to donate a portion of their liver to me. This friend meets all the health criteria and even has the same blood type as me.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I am so grateful to the Lord for this person.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Even though insurance will pay for the bulk of the costs there are still several costs that must be born by the recipient (me).
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Some of those costs are housing in a hotel that the hospital owns that is near the University of Washington Medical Center so the patient and the recipient have a place to stay for a period of time after their initial hospital stays.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This is just to make sure they are completely healed and don’t have to make a long drive to the hospital if there is a complication that arises.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Most of those housing costs are covered by donations from former liver transplant recipients and their families but there is still a co-pay type scenario for the recipient to pay out of pocket.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>So, I’m not asking for this GoFundMe effort to pay for the large Hospital bills that are as I said covered primarily by insurance.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>But rather I’m trying to mitigate the Co-Pay costs that will fall to me once everything is successfully completed.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>It will still be a huge bill.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Thank you for your consideration, and God bless you.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>David McIntyre
</div>

Daniel Olson

Stacy Alexander

Brenda Johnson

Pamela Arthur

Anonymous

Support David McIntyre's Life-Saving Liver Transplant

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Support David McIntyre's Life-Saving Liver Transplant

Still $9,610 to go. Help us build momentum.