Story: Waitlisted

Kaitlyn woke up on the couch that sat in her mother's hospital room as she heard the door opening. A figure wearing a white jacket strode in with a handful of papers and no discernible expression on her face.

"Katherine Meyer?" Kaitlyn sat up straight to answer the doctor.

"I'm her daughter, I'm allowed to know." Kaitlyn responded. She still couldn't determine what kind of news the doctor was about to deliver. Her mother had been suffering through the middle stages of liver failure and was awaiting test results to see whether a liver donor was required.

"I'll come back later to talk to your mother myself, but it looks like she is going to need an immediate liver transplant. The scarring is too severe to treat." Kaitlyn fought back tears.

"But I-I'm not a match for her blood." Her voice cracked.

"Yes, your mother will be placed on the transplant list until a match becomes available." Kaitlyn wondered how someone could be so robotic in delivering news like this.

"But she needs one now." Kaitlyn couldn't help raising her voice slightly at the disappointing news.

"Until a match becomes available, which can take up to several months, your mother will have to be monitored closely and need to stay as healthy as possible, which means eating a balanced diet and cutting out alcohol completely. It looks like it'll be your job to make sure these things are carried out." The doctor looked at 20 year-old Kaitlin with almost a hint of sadness, but it disappeared quickly.

After the doctor left, Kaitlyn fast walked to the bathroom on the fourth floor and immediately starting crying in a stall.  Why couldn't she save her own mother? And how long would her mom last without a transplant? She was barely awake most of the time due to her illness, and when she was awake, she was nauseous and had no appetite. Other time, she was completely confused and called Kaitlyn by her brother's name.

Then it came to her. Her brother! He could possibly be their mother's donor and save her. Her older brother had been long gone. Right after college, he left for a manager position at a big technology company on the west coast. After their mother's long struggle with alcoholism, he didn't want anything to do with her. Kaitlyn decided to call anyway.

Surprisingly, the phone picked up.

"Hey Erik, it's Kaitlyn."  A long pause.

"What do you need?" he asked, sounding inconvenienced.

"It's Mom." Another long pause.

"You know I can't deal with her addiction anymore. I did for ten years and I refuse to put myself through it again."

"Erik, she's dying. Her only hope is a transplant and she's on the list for one but it might be months and I don't know if she'll last that long. Please, Erik, you might be able to save--" The dial tone sounded.

Kaitlyn sat down on the toilet and cried again. Erik was the only one who could save her in time and he had refused. Their mother was in so much pain and all he could think about was himself and her past mistakes. Now, their only hope was someone on the list.

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Six months later, Kaitlyn sat in the same hospital, two floors up, helping her mom pack up her stuff to leave. Her mother ended up getting on the list, and an anonymous donor gave their liver a month and a half after calling her brother.



A/N
This story is based off of a story I found in Sacred Tales of India called "The Wife of Yama". So in the story, there's a brother and sister named Kausik and Bijaya. Kausik and Bijaya had performed a special ceremony to Parvati that gave them each one wish. Kausik had wished to be a king so it happened, and Bijaya asked to be the bride of one of the ghost beings from the land of the dead. She married Yama, the prince of death. One day, she was strolling through the forest and saw her mother among the souls suffering in hell (because of a sin her mother had committed), so she asked her husband to get her mother out of there. He said he could not, and her last hope was if Kausik, her brother, gave up his wish. He refused because he did not want to give up his throne. Eventually, Bijaya found a woman who also performed the ceremony and had one wish given to her. This woman was kind enough to give Bijaya's mother the wish and so her mother was released from hell.

I wanted to modernize the story, so I made "hell" a sickness that their mother was dying from due to her own choices in life. So, I chose Cirrhosis of the liver since alcoholism would put her at risk of liver failure. The estranged brother in my story represents Kausik, who was unwilling to leave his job on the west coast to give part of his liver to his own mother. The anonymous donor plays the role of the woman who, although she didn't know Bijaya's mother, gave her life anyway.

Bibliography: Sacred Tales of India By Dwigendra Neogi. Link to reading guide.

For Liver info: Web MD

Image: Wikimedia Commons