Liver Transplant Dilemma: The Alcoholic, Medicaid Patient

A case scenario on Ivan Bradford. Ivan is a fifty-five year old, white male in need of a liver transplant. Ivan has been an alcoholic since he was thirty-two years old, and has developed an irreversible advanced liver disease, cirrhosis. In essence, the disease is the end result in scarring of the liver due to prolonged alcohol abuse.

This scarring prevents the liver from performing many of its vital functions. Without a liver transplant Ivan will die.