Looking at pictures of her children makes Elizabeth Heaton smile. But they also make her a little sad.
The single mom from Tinley Park wants her kids to be kids and not focus on her illness.
"They are telling their friends, 'You know, hey, my Mommy needs a liver,'" Heaton said. "According to my son, the robot will fix mommy's liver and give her a new one."
Heaton's diagnosis came in 2017. Doctors told her she had primary sclerosing cholangitis, or PSC.
PSC is a chronic liver disease in which the bile ducts inside and outside the liver become inflamed and scarred and eventually become narrowed or blocked. When this happens, bile builds up in the liver and causes further liver damage.
Chicago Bears great Walter Payton had the same chronic liver disease, Heaton said.
"The life expectancy for someone with PSC is not very great after diagnosis. It’s about 10 to 12 years," she said.
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After 15 surgeries and numerous therapies, Heaton is now fighting against the clock.
The only thing that can save her life is a liver transplant, preferably from a living donor.
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"With a living donor, they go through a screening process that takes about four weeks, and they work them up from head to toe and they can say this person has the best chance of not rejecting the liver transplant," Heaton said. "With a deceased donor, you don't know much about them. All they know is the size of the liver, the bile ducts, things like that, all match. Your body could reject your body and you don't know much about it."
Three basic criteria are needed for a match: Blood type O (- or +), between the ages of 18 and 55 and in healthy condition.
To apply to be a living donor, fill out this questionnaire through the University of Chicago Medicine. You'll need her name, Elizabeth Heaton, and her birthday, March 13, 1988, when completing the form.
