Liver Disease & Transplant Center

Extremely kind and professional. The best.

My son 35 years old died thanks to Cedars Liver program and their doctors. We went out of our way to take our son to Cedars believing they were the best. They initially refused to put him on the list because of another condition that needed to be under control first. Also they refused because he needed to show that he would no longer consume alcohol. The issue is that he was only 35 and had no idea he had a liver issue until he became sick. I could see if he was a 60 year old who had been warned to stop drinking, but how is a 35 year old with no history going to prove this. He certainly did not drink again once he became sick. He got the one condition under control but in the mean time he was in and out of Cedars and deteriorating each time. A week before he died Cedars staff apparently met again and decided he wasn't worthy still because he hadn't been sober that long. He was obviously melting away and about to die and did not have time to prove himself. He again became very sick a week or so after the last time Cedars released him. We had to take him to the ER in Bakersfield as we feared he would not make the drive to Cedars. The doctor in Bakersfield knew he would die without a transplant and she knew that Cedars had been treating him. She contacted the team at Cedars and one if the main doctors again refused him a transplant citing length of sobriety (again he had no known issues prior to becoming ill and had not touched alcohol once he did fall ill)

The Doctor at Cedars not only refused him the transplant, but refused to allow him to be transfered to Cedars for higher level of care. The doctor in Bakersfield told the Cedars doctor that he would die but the Cedars doctor did nothing.

We took 4 or 5 trips from Bakersfield to Cedars believing they would try to save our son, not only did they allow him to fade away but never said that they would deny him based on length of sobriety and tell us to try and seek care elsewhere. As a matter of fact one if their doctors said if it becomes obviously criticle they would put him on the list. Another Cedars doctor told us that he was optimistic that our son will get a transplant and be fine.

Cedars let our son melt away into basically a skeleton and never bothered to tell is that they would never give him a transplant. Then even though we had been entrusting them with our son's care all along, they refused to even treat him in the end.

My advice is if the Doctors playing God at Cedars refuse you, immediately contact another program. When it finally became clear that Cedars abandoned him I asked the local doctors to try UCLA. They accepted him within hours, but it was too late and he died in Bakersfield.