Second Chance: Amanda Sabol’s Emotional Organ Transplant Story

It’s a story of fear, hope, resilience, and overall profound gratitude. Amanda Sabol is sharing her emotional organ transplant journey for the first time. It’s a very personal experience about organ failure and eventually a successful transplant. The Baraboo woman is now able to talk openly about her hope for that second chance, and why she’s choosing to speak out during National Donate Life Month.

I’ve learned to speak up for the need for donors, to dispel myths, and to educate others on the life-saving power of organ and blood donation.

Amanda Sabol, organ transplant recipient

Amanda recently sat down with David Grant at the local Civic Media radio station, MAX FM, to reflect on what began – not with any strange symptoms, but with a simple act of kindness – donating blood in memory of her late father. 

She tells David her hope to honor her dad instead revealed something she never expected. It turned out her body wasn’t producing red blood cells. A check-up spiraled into months of hospital visits, unanswered questions, and then the deterioration of her liver and kidney function.

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Listen to part one of David’s interview with Amanda here:

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“I kept thinking I was going to get better,” Amanda says. “But then I couldn’t breathe. I was med-flighted. That’s when it became real. A transplant might be the only option.”

Her condition worsened by the day. And there was the lack of a clear diagnosis. Could it be autoimmune or possibly genetic? What made it harder for Amanda was the uncertainty, and not just about her health, but an organ transplant itself. 

Meantime, the emotional toll was, and still can be, staggering.

“I was only 37. I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs. And I didn’t want people to see how sick I was,” she explains. “But what made it harder was all the uncertainty. There’s no such thing as being ‘next on the list.’ You have to prove to a committee that you’re strong enough to survive the surgery, to live.”

Luckily, Amanda had great support from her husband, an unshakable community of family and friends, and her medical team at UW Hospital in Madison. It helped her hang on through some of the darkest months.

Then came her 38th birthday — and a phone call. 

“There was an opportunity,” she says. “We rushed to Madison. I had to hope everything checked out. You pack a bag, and then you wait.”

The liver was a match. And the transplant changed everything. 

Slowly, Amanda began to breathe on her own again. She could walk. Her color returned. 

But it hasn’t been an easy path. Medications and side effects linger, and she knows more surgeries are likely. 

Still, her spirit is full of renewed purpose.

“I’ve learned to be grateful for things I used to take for granted,’ Amanda shares. “Things like my skin tone, or climbing stairs. I’ve learned to speak up for the need for donors, to dispel myths, and to educate others on the life-saving power of organ and blood donation.”

Amanda is a stirring reminder. A donation isn’t just about the organs. It’s about the lives saved, the families made whole, and the second chances made possible.