In February 2024, Superbowl Sunday looked a little bit different for Elise Sarver and her family.
“On Feb. 8, my boss told me my eyes were looking a little yellow,” said Elise. “I felt fine, but on Friday, my husband said it was getting a little more prominent. We went to lunch with his parents on Saturday and I ordered one of my favorite salads, but I just couldn’t eat it. I felt nauseated and really weird, so I went home and rested on the couch. The next day, on Superbowl Sunday, I was getting increasingly worse, so I told my husband that I needed to go to the emergency room. When I arrived, they told me I would not be leaving the hospital—they rushed me right back. They said, ‘we can’t send you home looking like a highlighter!’”
After being transported to Cary WakeMed, Elise was faced with a grim reality: at 34 years old, she was suffering from chronic liver failure and was told she only had months to live. In a race against time, applications were sent to both Duke and UNC hospitals for a transplant. For two weeks, she waited in WakeMed before being transferred to Duke’s ICU and placed on the transplant list at the end of February.
“They gave me my last rites and everything, so my prognosis went from three months from when I got to Duke down to less than a week,” said Elise. “I remember not wanting my doctors to say anything in front of my family, so I could keep my composure in front of them. As a person that’s going through it, you feel even worse knowing what you’re putting your family through.”
Elise’s parents, her sister Holly, and her husband Eric remained by her side, even as the situation grew increasingly dire. Their unwavering presence provided her with strength during some of the most critical and uncertain moments of her journey.
“It happened so fast that it was almost like you were living in a surreal state,” said Holly. “It was like no, not my sister, this is not happening. I kept my composure, and I only cried at home—but it really hit me before she had her transplant, seeing the state she was in. Coughing up blood, blood coming out of her nose. At the time, her son was literally turning 16 and she had a 13-year-old daughter. That’s when I lost it. I had to go behind the curtain and hug her husband.”
In the early morning hours of March 3, on their son’s 16th birthday, Elise’s husband received the life-changing call—there was a liver offer. He immediately contacted Elise’s family, and hope began to replace fear.
“When the phone rang early on a Sunday morning, I saw that it was Eric,” said Holly. “I was like, this is either really good news, or really bad news. He said we got a liver! There were tears of joy, I was so excited.”
The transplant took place on March 4. “I was rolled back at 4 a.m., and it only took about six hours or so,” said Elise. “Dr. Ravindra was my surgeon, and he was absolutely wonderful from start to finish—he always made sure to come in and check on me. He was always optimistic.”
Both Holly and Eric noticed that the signs of jaundice began fading almost immediately after the transplant. “When we saw her, she was still knocked out, but her skin was pink again. It was such a relief,” Eric recalled.
Now, five months post-transplant, Elise reflects on the physical and emotional toll of the experience.
“I’m doing as well as I can be, five months out,” said Elise. “It’s a roller coaster. I’m in the middle of writing my letter to my donor’s family, so that’s been pretty hard. My new life came at the cost of someone else’s, and it’s hard to process. I don’t know much about my donor, other than I think it was a male, but I hope to find out more. There’s so much I want to say to my donor’s family, but no words can truly capture it. I wish I could give them the biggest hug because they made the hardest decision in the world.”
Now, Elise and her family cherish every moment they have together. “It’s transformed my life, not just physically but emotionally,” Elise shared. “We’ve always been close, but this experience has brought us even closer. We take the time to truly appreciate life and one another.”
As for Holly, she’s taken away the invaluable lesson of expressing her feelings to those she loves. “Say the ‘I love yous,’ give the hugs, and let people know you care.”
Today, Elise says she is embracing her new life, finding joy in everyday moments, and looking forward to a future as a proud advocate of organ donation.
“I’m a big advocate,” she said. “There’s so much the public doesn’t know, and I just want to encourage people to consider donating. One person can save up to eight lives. For those who are on the fence about registering, my biggest question would be why? What’s one good reason you have not to? When you’re gone, what are you going to do with your body? Give yourself one reason why you can’t save other lives after passing. It’s a small price to pay when you’re no longer breathing.”
75 or more lives can be saved and healed by one organ, eye, and tissue donor. Register your decision at honorbridge.org/registerme
