Meet Mike - in amazing photographic detail

Thanks to a reader named Christian, I just received the kind of hook-up that I live for when it comes to Chopped Liver and my upcoming project for the new Web site. His brother, Mike, recently donated for a baby named Evan at UCLA, and like me Mike chronicled the event on his personal Web site - albeit one that's much more tech-savvy than my own. (Yea, Firefox!)

And get this.... Mike got permission to have someone take pictures during the surgery, and he has posted them on his site. They're phenomenal in quality and in detail, and unlike anything I've ever seen. Apparently, they're unlike anything that many people have ever seen, including transplant coordinators and others who help donors like us daily but aren't actually in the operating room. I highly encourage you to check them out, but beware if you're squeamish. (If you made it through the Body Worlds exhibit, these pics will be a piece of cake. )

As you look at these, note that Mike's surgery was different from mine in that they gave him the full "Mercedes logo" treatment (in which the incision is like a large upside down capital "Y". In my case, they did most of the work through a scope entered through my belly button -- my pictures would have been relatively boring compared to these -- and then just made a straight-line incision down the center of my torso for the act of removing the donated liver piece. Mike's treatment is the more common, as I understand it, and his resulting scar looks just like my brother's.

Thanks so much, Christian, for connecting us to Mike's site. My best wishes for both Mike and Evan's ongoing recovery and health.