A Hayes woman has learned she needs a liver transplant and is reaching out to the public to find a suitable donor who can share part of their own liver with her.

Tiffany Taylor has been dealing with liver disease since 2013 because of sclerosing cholangitis, a rare autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation, scarring, and the destruction of bile ducts inside and outside the liver. She said she had known that the condition would worsen over time, and after a liver stone got stuck in one of her bile ducts in October 2024, tests showed she had come to the point of being placed on the “ready to” list, which makes her a candidate for a transplant if something drastic happens, such as multiple hospitalizations and worsening symptoms.

Over the past year and a half, Taylor has had three liver stones get stuck in bile ducts, causing intense pain, fevers and jaundice, and twice requiring an endoscopic procedure to remove the stone and put in place a stent that subsequently had to be removed. The third time, she said, she was in the hospital on pain medication for two days because the stone was too big to remove and had to work its way out through the digestive system.

The part of the illness that affects Taylor on a daily basis is intense itching all over the body because of the excretion of bile into the bloodstream. That issue is currently under control because she is participating in a three-year study of a drug that significantly reduces the itching so that “I don’t feel the urge to scratch my skin off.”

Taylor also has Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease that has plagued her since 2015. She said her fatigue is chronic, and as soon as she gets home from work, she showers, puts on her pajamas, and is soon heading for bed. Sometimes the situation gets her down, she said, but “there’s no point in being sad. Most of the time I just suck it up and keep it moving.”

Who can donate

Taylor said she needs a living donor because her MELD (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) score has not yet gotten as high as 25, which would qualify her to be on the nationwide list for deceased donors. In 2024, when her bilirubin, creatinine, sodium and INR (a measure of how quickly blood clots) were all going in the wrong direction, her MELD score reached 23, but efforts to bring the disease under control have brought it back down to 16. However, there is no medication to stop the disease from progressing.

Taylor said a donor just needs to meet three requirements. They would need to have Type O blood, either positive or negative; be between 18 and 60 years old; and be in good physical and mental health.

The donor would be giving Taylor the left lobe of their liver, or the smaller lobe, leaving the right lobe to regrow. Once the left lobe is in place inside Taylor, it will begin to grow, as well, she said.

About Taylor

A Gloucester native, Taylor graduated from Gloucester High School in 2005, and in 2006 received her CNA license and began a career in the medical field. While working, she attended Rappahannock Community College, where she earned her LPN license in 2014 and her RN in 2020. In 2023, she received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Riverside College of Health Careers. She is currently working two jobs—as an adjunct lab instructor at Rappahannock Community College and as a flex-time nurse in the Anticoagulation Clinic at Sentara.

In 2015, Taylor married Dewaune, and they have a son, Liam, as well as Dewaune’s daughter Nyah from a previous marriage.

Dewaune said that when a person is setting out their “plans and goals and dreams” for a life with another person, “having severe illness is definitely not in that plan.” When his wife was diagnosed with liver disease and Crohn’s, he said, she had to pace herself when it came to both diet and activities.

“As a person, I witnessed my wife struggling,” he said, “and as a man, a provider, a protector, there was nothing I could do other than pray. I couldn’t take away her pain … But after all this, after watching my wife handle this with grace and humility, it provided me a different lens to look through dealing with my life. I’m thankful for her, and I just pray there’s an individual out there that matches, they’re healthy, and everything just works out in God’s favor.”

Liam said, “I just want my mom to get better,” and Taylor’s mother, Lisa Whiting Carter, said she keeps praying that someone is going to send her daughter a living donor. She praised her son-in-law and the relationship between him and her daughter.

“All I see is love between them,” she said. “It wasn’t nobody but God that put them together.”