Weathering the Storm Together: Small-Town Friends Share a Bond (And a Liver)

Content Courtesy of Jefferson Health
Photos Courtesy of Kaitlyn (Wagner) Lail and Ashley Renshaw

At the beginning of 2021, Ashley Renshaw was a healthy, 36-year-old physical education teacher. She was very active and even played on an adult field hockey team in her spare time. But her health took a sudden turn in May 2021, when she collided with another player during a field hockey game and went home experiencing extreme pain in her stomach.

“I thought it was a hernia,” Ashley says. “And I went to the ER thinking that it would be in-and-out surgery.” Instead, her doctors found fluid in her abdomen and diagnosed her with cirrhosis of the liver. “The doctors thought I was an alcoholic and not owning up to it,” she recalls. “They mentioned liver transplant. It was so out of the blue. I went from a healthy 36-year-old to someone who was dying.”

Ashley landed back in the hospital a month later, and when her doctors still couldn’t understand why her liver was in such a bad state, she was transferred to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The care team at Jefferson dove deep to find out what was wrong, and eventually diagnosed Ashley with Budd-Chiari syndrome.

Budd-Chiari syndrome is a condition characterized by narrowing veins of the liver, which can lead to abdominal pain, an abnormally large liver and/or an accumulation of fluid in the stomach lining. About 70% of cases of Budd-Chiari syndrome have no known cause. Ashley’s doctors determined that her Budd-Chiari Syndrome was caused by polycythemia vera, a rare type of blood cancer. “In non-fancy terms,” Ashley explains. “I make way too many red blood cells which caused the blood clots in my liver.”

Ashley’s condition was severe enough to land her on the liver transplant list. From there, she was given information about the process of getting a live donor. Word spread throughout Ashley’s community of teachers and field hockey players that she needed a liver.

Ashley finally found a match in October 2021: Kaitlyn Wagner is a fellow player on Ashley’s adult field hockey team, but their relationship began much earlier. “We both grew up in the same small town and I coached Kaitlyn when she was little—she’s a good friend of my younger sister,” says Ashley. “Also, her brother is married to my brother-in-law’s sister.”

Even stranger, Kaitlyn broke her collar bone in May 2021 and had to miss a field hockey game—the same game that landed Ashley in the hospital with abdominal pain. “Ashley was playing in my position for that game,” says Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn shares that this opportunity presented itself during a hard time in her life: “My mom was battling cancer at the time and I had just put my dog down. I felt like I couldn’t control anything. But what I could control was helping Ashley.”

In December 2021, Ashley and Kaitlyn went to Jefferson for surgery. “Everything went smoothly,” says Ashley. And Kaitlyn reflects, “I went into surgery seeing how sick Ashley looked, and when I woke up in the ICU I looked over and she already looked different. Dr. [Warren] Maley held up the drain bag so I could see that her new liver was already working.”

A few days after surgery, Kaitlyn’s mom had her last round of chemo, and a few days after that her dad had his gallbladder removed. “We were all recovering together for Christmas that year, taking turns asking each other how we were doing,” says Kaitlyn. She felt almost totally back to normal six weeks after surgery.

Ashley had a longer hospital stay, but her kids were able to visit her on Christmas Day. She was home by December 27, one day before her 37th birthday. By June 2022, she was back to playing field hockey and even traveled to Disney World with her family. “I didn’t realize how sick I was, even before I felt sick, until after the surgery. There was an immediate improvement in my health,” she says.

Now, Ashley and Kaitlyn have an unbreakable bond—they even got matching tattoos over their surgery scars. “I never thought Kaitlyn would donate a part of her body to me. It’s mind-blowing when you find out someone is willing to go through this to save someone’s life,” says Ashley.

“I always looked up to Ashley, the way she was just rolling with life. But we’re a lot closer now,” says Kaitlyn.

Both Kaitlyn (Wagner) Lail and Ashley Renshaw were the receipients of the 2023 USA Field Hockey Humanitarian Award.