Sara Leister stood in a quiet conference room at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health's Suburban Pavilion, her hands grasped tightly in front of her, as she looked nervously at her husband, then back at the door to the hallway. The 40-year-old Lancaster General nurse was about to meet a woman she'd never seen before, yet one of her organs—a uterus she'd donated over a year ago—had been part of that woman's body, carrying a life that connected them forever.
Leister glanced at the door, then at the tattoo on her forearm: a uterus adorned with flowers and birthstones marking the births of her own two sons, now 14 and 10, as well as the birthstones for February, the month of her uterus was transplanted into another woman who dreamed of bearing her own children.
Now, another gemstone represents the birth month of the baby that was made a reality through that transplant.
The rare gift of living uterus donation is a powerful way that women who have already given birth to their own children can help others who would otherwise be unable to do so. Leister was about to join the growing list of living uterus donors who got to meet the recipients of their life-giving gift.
