Albuquerque teacher gets living donor match from coworker for liver transplant

A longtime Albuquerque teacher who thought she had a kidney stone instead learned she had full liver failure, and now a coworker at Alamosa Elementary School has matched as a living donor to help save her life.

Kathleen Gallegos, a 24-year veteran of Albuquerque Public Schools, had been battling nonalcoholic liver cirrhosis after frightening symptoms set in: jaundice, fluid buildup that swelled her stomach, and exhaustion so severe that some days she struggled to get out of bed. Two days before Christmas last year, she went to the hospital expecting treatment for a kidney stone and instead got the news that her liver was failing.

Doctors told Gallegos that a transplant could be life-saving, but a deceased-donor organ could take years to become available. She feared she might not survive a wait of about three years, and that urgency set off a response from the staff at Alamosa Elementary in Southwest Albuquerque. Three colleagues volunteered to be tested as possible living donors, and first-grade teacher Lorin Ybarra was identified as a match.

The match matters because living-donor liver transplants can move far faster than the traditional wait for a deceased donor. Federal donor materials say a healthy person can donate part of a liver while alive, and Mayo Clinic says the donor’s remaining liver and the transplanted portion can grow back to normal size and capacity within months. Donors typically stay about five days in the hospital and recover over roughly 8 to 12 weeks, which makes the gift medically powerful but also a major disruption in work and daily life.

Gallegos’s case also reflects a broader transplant crisis. United Network for Organ Sharing said more than 49,000 organ transplants were performed in the United States in 2025, but demand still outpaces supply. Mayo Clinic says nearly 1 in 8 Americans on the liver transplant waiting list die before receiving an organ, and nearly 1 in 6 become too sick to remain listed.

In New Mexico, where UNM Health says it is the state’s only academic medical center and home to its largest teaching hospital, patients with complex liver disease often depend on advanced specialty care in Albuquerque. At Alamosa Elementary, the response to Gallegos’s illness shows how a school can become a support system, with coworkers stepping into roles that go far beyond the classroom as one of their own fights for another chance.