Liver Transplantation

When Lukas Borland received a liver transplant at UI Health, he knew it would change his life. What he didn’t expect was to begin noticing those changes while biting into his first corn dog in nearly a decade.

“It sounds simple, but I hadn’t eaten fast food like that in years,” Lukas laughed. “I wouldn’t have dared touch anything deep fried before the surgery, but now it didn’t upset my stomach at all — and it tasted great!”

Lukas’s condition — known as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) — is a rare genetic disorder that prevents bile from flowing to the gallbladder and small intestine, causing it to build up in the liver and damage cells.

When he was diagnosed at 16, he understood it would require consistent monitoring and medical treatment. What he wasn’t prepared for was things like bland dinners and early bedtimes — brought on by gastrointestinal issues and extreme fatigue — that would become routine throughout his late teens and early 20s.

“It’s difficult as a parent, because you see your child not being able to have the same experiences as other people his age,” said Brenda Durbin, Lukas’s mom. “You don’t expect your 25-year-old son to say he’s going to bed at 8 pm.”

Things started to change for Lukas in late 2024. While his MELD score — a measure of overall liver health — still looked good, his quality of life was declining much more quickly.

“I started experiencing more and more of the secondary complications from my disease,” Lukas said. “But my doctors told me that because of my age and PSC’s slow progression, my liver would probably remain too healthy for a spot on the deceased donor transplant list.”

Lukas’s best chance at a cure would be a living organ donation, so he began meeting with UI Health liver transplant surgeon Dr. Mario Spaggiari and liver transplant coordinator Lisa Mariano at the UI Health Transplant Outreach Clinic at OSF Healthcare’s Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria.

“In the last decade, UI Health has become a critical referral center for patients across the Midwest in need of robotic organ transplantation,” said Dr. Spaggiari, who also serves as the surgical director of UI Health’s Liver Transplant Program. “As one of the few academic medical centers in the nation capable of performing these surgeries, we can take on cases like Lukas’s without hesitation.”

And after his first meeting, all it took was one text to the family group chat before he had a donor lined up.

“It was a scary thing for me to hear about my brother — that he’d need a new liver — but I work in live TV, so those unpredictable, high-stress situations are my bread and butter,” said Lukas’s sister and liver donor, Rachel. “After I had that momentary freak-out, it was like, ‘Ok, well, what’s the next step? How can we figure this out fast?’"

The next step was a flight from Rachel’s home in Los Angeles to Chicago for a meeting with UI Health’s Liver Transplant team. This was followed by a round of tests to confirm that the siblings’ livers would be a healthy match.

Just three months later, the pair were back in Chicago, preparing for robotic right hepatectomies — a rare and technologically advanced surgery that transplants the larger side of the donor’s liver, without much of the scarring and recovery time that performing the procedure as an open surgery would require.

Within days of the surgery, Rachel was discharged, and within a month, her liver had grown back to full size. And though Lukas will continue his recovery for a bit longer, UI Health has given him a clear path to better health and a fuller life.

“I had been tired for such a long time, so I’m excited to see my energy and my stamina coming back,” Lukas said. “I already know the next time I visit Rachel, LA will be so much more fun than before.”