A Newtown resident and Middle School nurse who is used to providing medical support is now reaching out to her community for a life saving donor willing to participate in a liver tissue transplant procedure.

Karen McKenzie White, APRN, recently reached out to The Newtown Bee to help get the word out about this unique and critical donor opportunity, as well as a GoFundMe initiative she established to help raise funds to assist a qualified donor candidate through their own recovery.

Ms White has resided in Newtown for more than 20 years, but last year she said she suffered from a trauma that robbed her of liver function, and she has been gradually feeling worse and worse — most recently relinquishing her caregiving duties and transitioning to short-term disability, according to her husband, Edward.

Edward White, a Waterbury school teacher, told The Newtown Bee this week that he is anticipating missing a number of days of work in the coming weeks and months as he takes on more caregiving responsibility at home. The couple have four adult children between the ages of 23 and 30.

In a November 25 e-mail and follow-up call, Ms White shared that “I have dedicated my life to helping children. My husband is a Waterbury High School teacher and does the same. He coached Newtown Basketball for almost ten years.

“I suffered a severe trauma last year, was in Danbury Hospital for 12 days, bled out 2.5 liters of blood from the liver, [received five blood transfusions as a result], and now have too much scar tissue for my life to go on. I need a living donor, blood type O or B,” Ms White continued.

She has been assured that anyone qualifying as a donor would experience donated liver tissue regenerating in about six weeks.

“My health insurance would cover all the donor’s expenses,” she added.

Ms White said she is working mostly with an expert transplant team at Yale New Haven Hospital, while also trying to get listed at Hartford Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian, and Westchester Medical Center.

She has also taken the rare and selfless step of creating a GoFundMe page to cover additional expenses for the donor — like their time off of work — along with supplementing income for her own procedure and related expenses.

That site can be accessed HERE.

“My loving husband is my lifeline — doing all the shopping, cleaning and running of errands, working and providing income and health insurance, which is stressful to both of us and makes me feel badly,” she relates on her fundraising site.

“I am out on disability due to extreme fatigue, weakness, nausea and vomiting, tremors and palpitations. Any donation would offset my loss of income but would also be used to compensate a living donor’s expenses during their loss of work/wages during a eight-week recovery time,” Ms White added. “I would not ask for financial help but I have four beautiful children who would suffer if their mom passed early. Thank you for your consideration.”

Anyone wishing to inquire about being a possible donor can call 866-925-3897, the Center for Living Organ Donors at Yale New Haven Hospital, and reference Karen McKenzie White.