After a year without a match, an Acworth woman found a liver donor — her brother
Deontae and Di’Jon Thomas were always close growing up in Acworth.
While the siblings, who are two years apart, shared many things, they now share something even more important — a lifesaving liver.
Di'Jon Thomas told Channel 2 Action News that she nearly passed out when she was 16 years old, leading to a rare and frightening diagnosis. Doctors said she had primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), which is a chronic liver disease usually found in men over 30 years old — not teenage girls.
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“It was crazy. I thought I was about to die,” she told Channel 2. “That was the first big scare.”
The next scare was learning more about the disease, which slowly damages a liver's bile ducts. That can eventually lead to liver failure, bile duct cancer or colon cancer, according to the American Liver Foundation.
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The teen, who has aspirations of becoming a teacher, was placed on a national transplant list by Emory Hospital last summer. While she needed a new liver badly, this escalation didn’t ease her worries.
“You have to be super, super, super sick,” she told Channel 2. “Basically on your death bed.”
Her family waited, but they never found a match, leading them to take matters into their own hands, the news station reported. Five family members were tested, and her brother was the only match.
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“Family will do what they can for their family,” Deonte Thomas said.
For him, that meant undergoing 19 hours of surgery in January so his sister, who is also raising a young daughter, could receive a portion of his liver.
“For as long as I live, I feel that will never go away — knowing that I saved a family member’s life,” he said.
The surgery cost the family more than $250,000, according to Channel 2, and they have set up a GoFundMe page to help pay those medical bills.
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About the Author
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
