CENTER TWP — Slipped into a recent Sunday's classifieds, sandwiched between ads seeking antiques and a gasoline golf cart, a small notice in the Butler Eagle from a Butler woman sought the community's help saving her life.

“Hello, my name is Lorraine. I have a liver disease called autoimmune cholangitis,” it said. “My only chance to live is to find a living liver donor. Will need type O blood and to be healthy and between the ages 18-54. Call 724-713-6967.”

Back at her home near Butler, retired nurse Lorraine Skomo, 69, waits by the phone with her husband, David, and their dog, Maggie, hoping for a generous donor to reach out with a life-changing offer.

“We've done about everything we can,” David Skomo said. “I don't know what else we could do. We've put posters up; Facebook; you know how it goes. It's like wildfire.”

The Skomos first started looking for a donor around five months ago, David said, after her doctor ran a test to measure the condition of her liver and found it worse than ever.

“They do a special test called a MELD score,” Lorraine said. “I was 11 at one time, and I'm 20 now. I'll go on the transplant list at 30, and that'll probably be coming up shortly. But my doctor advised me: he said, 'Lorraine if you wait, you're only going to get sicker.'”

Lorraine and David enlisted their son, Darin, to spread the word on social media, began taking ads out in the newspaper and doing anything else they could think of to get the word out.

Eventually the calls started coming in. But so far, none has worked out.

“I got a lot of calls. I probably got half a dozen calls,” she said.

Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the Skomos have yet to lock down a candidate that meets the health requirements.

According to Dr. Swaytha Ganesh, medical director of the UPMC Living Donor Program, when a candidate registers to be a donor they fill out a form listing their information including name, age, weight and height.

From here, hospital staff can assess whether they still qualify to be a donor. If so, they will set up a time to do more intensive tests.

“We want to check if they are healthy,” Ganesh said. “No cancer, no HIV, drug use.”

Any major health issues can disqualify a potential donor.

Lorraine recalled her concern for the first caller after hearing about her medical issues.

“She had a lot of health problems and I was very concerned for her,” she said. “I really was. I even said that to my doctor, and he said, 'Well — she'll be OK.'”

Once a potential donor passes this round of testing, then they'll be cleared for donation.

“Usually for the donor its over the period of a day,” Ganesh said.

At that point, they can begin coordinating a time for the surgery.

Other callers, for reasons unknown to the Skomos, stopped responding to calls.

“A few of the people — not all of them — I never heard from again,” she said. “I mean I would get their number and try to touch base with them ... And they were all very nice; very, very nice people. I don't know why some of them didn't call back.”

The family has been contacted by a possible donor who wishes to remain anonymous, though they are still waiting to hear back about whether the individual is a viable candidate.

“There has to be someone out there,” Lorraine said. “I know there is, somewhere.”

As a retired nurse, Skomo spent decades helping people in the same situation she now finds herself in. When she retired in 2004, she was the preoperative program coordinator at Grove City Medical Center, where she worked with patients preparing for surgery.

“That (familiarity) can be good and bad, because you know so much that it can get a little scary, because now you're going to be on the other end of things. And yet it has to be done,” she said. “I'm trying to be a good patient.”

She was working as a nurse and raising her twin sons, Darin and David, when she first learned of her illness nearly 40 years ago.

“It came up in a routine physical exam ... It was a routine blood test, and my liver enzyme was elevated,” she said. “And I said, 'Ohhh that must be a lab error.' I mean, you know, (it) could be. I was trying to be positive.”

The lab ran a second test, which again came back showing elevated liver enzymes.

For the next few decades Skomo did her best to manage the disease, taking medications and seeing a specialist.

“I really didn't have any problems at that time,” she said. “I was very active.”

Skomo worked as a registered nurse, as she had for years, and still found time to raise her children and maintain her hobbies, painting and playing racquetball.

The disease, however, continued to worsen despite the treatments and recently progressed to cirrhosis, threatening her health and manifesting in a host of symptoms ranging from pulmonary hypertension and problems with motor functions to a weakened immune system and occasional confusion.

“I know I have a little elevation in my ammonia level,” Skomo said. “I get confused or sometimes can't get the right word. I almost feel sometimes like I've had a stroke, but I haven't.”

She's had a few falls, she said, and can't leave the house much without a mask due to her weakened immune system. Her doctor also encouraged her to avoid crowds and hospitals when possible.

Still, Lorraine said she's grateful for the support of her family and community.

“My neighbors have been very supportive. Sometimes they'll bring a meal over,” she said. “My husband's been so helpful too. He's had to take over a lot of stuff. There were days when I was in bed all day.”

David Skomo said they hope they can find someone soon.

“I try to support her and make things as normal as possible,” he said. “We'd like to get it done this year, if we could just get a donor to come through. Get it behind us.”

In addition to the threat to her health and ultimately her life, Lorraine said the disease has interrupted an important part of her life — time with her family.

“I have a lot to do. I want to see my grandkids. One's going to go to college this year,” she said. “And I want to see what they become in life; if they have children. I'd like to have great-grandchildren,

“Because my mother got to see her great-grandchildren. And I wonder if I will, And God willing I will. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.”