Retired Magisterial District Judge Donna Butler is seeking someone to bestow on her the ultimate kindness - to extend her life.

Butler has a damaged liver, which puts her in end-stage cirrhosis, but is encouraged by the thought that someone out there would be a medical match and could provide a lobe of their liver as a living donor. That unknown someone would agree to surgery that would transfer part of their living liver to Butler to replace her damaged organ and provide her with a functioning liver.

“I know that would sound scary to someone who might consider being a living donor,” Butler said. “But people are surprised to hear that the donor’s liver would regenerate and grow back to its original size in a matter of months.”

Butler is on a national kidney/liver transplant registry through Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, “but my doctor said a living donor provides a much quicker chance of success in acquiring a liver.”

Medical and other expenses incurred by a donor would be compensated by Butler’s medical insurance.

A number of family and friends have been screened as potential donors, but none has fully met the strict donor age and medical requirements. A potential donor from New York state had come forward, but the qualifying process showed the liver was not anatomically suitable for transplant. Another living donor is pending.

Butler is a longtime resident of Emmaus, living in the home along East Greenleaf Street she shares with Michael Butler, her husband of 45 years. Butler said she also has a strong affinity for Salisbury Township.

“My house is right on the line,” she said. “One end of the home is in Salisbury, the other end in Emmaus.”

Butler is a retired district judge for Court 31-2-03, which once included Emmaus and Upper Milford Township. She was appointed judge in 1997 by former Gov. Tom Ridge and ran unopposed in subsequent elections. She retired in 2022 after almost 25 years on the bench.

With intentions to carry on her community work with Kiwanis and other organizations and to watch her grandchildren grow up, Butler began noticing in late 2022 that she was slowing down physically and “just didn’t feel well.”

A visit a year ago to her general practitioner led her to the St. Luke’s emergency department, resulting in Butler’s immediate hospitalization for treatment. After she was released, toxin accumulation landed her back in the hospital for another stay.

“My extended family and friends have provided so much support for me in the past year. I am so grateful for all of them,” Butler said.

Butler has been working hard to do things medical advice suggests would be helpful for her condition, but she is admittedly becoming increasingly frail.

Butler said, apart from her medical treatment, the psychological benefits she receives as part of an online support group are invaluable.

“Those afflicted with liver disease say they feel so alone in their condition,” Butler said. “It really helps when I get online and complain about symptoms like being awakened in the middle of the night with terrible itching in my arms - to hear others chime in ‘me too,’ provides comfort by showing we are not alone.”

Butler reports it’s also common for those with liver cirrhosis to question “why me” when longtime lifestyle circumstances don’t provide an easy answer. Butler has her suspicions, but inadequate research has yet to confirm a hereditary component.

“Two grandparents and another relative died of this condition,” she reported. “To me, that says a lot.”

With a Google search, a great deal of information exists online about the intricacies of being a liver donor. Butler also has a microsite online with personal insight into her quest for a donor. It can be reached by a link through tinyurl.com/LiverForDonna.