Maria Contreras received a call in July 2020 that would change her life.

"I will never forget the day the coordinators told me they found me a liver donor," said Contreras, 53. "My heart started beating hard - I've been waiting for so long."

It has been six years since the Cleveland mother of four first developed painful itching on her palms and lower legs, which led to a liver biopsy and a diagnosis of cirrhosis. In 2019 he nearly died in intensive care when he needed a stent on his heart - his body could barely take it.

Finally, on July 1, 2020, he went to a clinic in Cleveland for a liver transplant. "Just before they took me to the operating room, I looked up, and my doctor, Dr. Hashimoto, told me everything would be fine. Then, he hit me, which made me feel confident - now I do it every time I see him.

The operation was successful, and he was discharged two weeks later, one day before his birthday. "It was the perfect gift," said Contreras, who lives in Cleveland. Contreras isn't the only person to benefit from this particular liver: Monica Davis received another part of what's known as a split liver transplant. This unusual procedure began in Germany in the 1980s.

No other liver transplant technique can save multiple lives from a single donor," says Koji Hashimoto, Ph.D., director of liver transplantation at the more complex and technically tricky Cleveland Clinic.

Initially, Davis was reluctant about the idea of ​​a transplant. However, when she learned that she had cirrhosis associated with chronic inflammation of the bile ducts and her doctor suggested she be put on the transplant list, she said no.

"I don't want a transplant because my three children are grown and don't need me, and I don't think my husband will need me," she said. "I was forced to give up the idea of ​​life.