Two angels, a robot and 23: a Johns Hopkins Medicine organ transplant story

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In Douglas Adams’ classic science fiction novel, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the number 42 is the answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything.” But for two Maryland women, Anjanette (Anjie) Lynchard and Mary Ann Carroll, it’s the number 23, not 42, that has marked their special connection to life and each other — along with a liver, a robotic surgeon and the organ transplant team at Johns Hopkins Medicine. 

Lynchard and Carroll first became friends in 2010 when the Lynchards moved to Columbia, Maryland, directly across the street from the Carrolls. Lynchard’s son, Jared, and Carroll’s son, Phillip, soon became best friends. “They were practically inseparable, spending time together biking, fishing and catching frogs,” says Lynchard. 

After the Lynchards moved in 2013 to Ellicott City, Maryland, and the boys no longer shared activities such as a local swim team, the families lost touch with only sparse social media contact between them. Jared and Phillip grew into adults and Jared joined the Marines, rising to the rank of lance corporal. And then, tragedy befell the Lynchards on March 7, 2024, when Jared, age 23 — the first time the number 23 became associated with this transplant story — died suddenly. 

“Mary Ann came by after Jared passed away to offer condolences and bring me a prayer shawl,” says Lynchard. “I noticed right away that she looked different from when I saw her last — roughly a span of 11 years — and I asked her if everything was okay.” 

It was then that Carroll recounted a three-year struggle with illness. “I told Anjie that I had been diagnosed with liver disease in the fall of 2021 and then, how on January 23, 2022 — the second time that my transplant journey was linked to the number 23 — I  was hospitalized with acute pancreatitis, leading to the removal of my completely dead gall bladder a week later,” she says. 

Carroll continued her tale, saying that during the three months after her gall bladder surgery, she was in and out of the hospital to treat constricted, and then later, blocked bile ducts. “Failure to stem the blockage eventually led to cirrhosis of my liver, which in turn, resulted in end-stage liver disease,” says Carroll. “I was then diagnosed with a rare disease, secondary sclerosing cholangitis, for which the only cure was to undergo a liver transplant.” 

In October 2023 — the year being another connection to the number 23 — Carroll was placed on the national waiting list for a suitable organ. At that time, approximately 10,227 patients were awaiting a liver transplant, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. 

Lynchard says that after Carroll departed, she prayed for a miracle to save her friend’s life. She had no clue at that moment that she would be that miracle. 

“Several months after my visit from Mary Ann, I saw on Facebook that she had posted a search for a living donor to provide a portion of their liver for transplantation,” Lynchard says. “No one in her family was suitable as a donor, so Mary Ann had to reach outward.” 

After much prayer and consideration, Lynchard says that her strong faith gave her the courage and motivation to honor her late son by getting tested as a possible living donor for Carroll. When Lynchard told Carroll about her potentially lifesaving offer, Carroll was hesitant, not wanting to burden her friend so soon after dealing with a family tragedy. 

But what really convinced Lynchard to do the donation was something her husband Steve told her. “Steve recalled that during a missionary trip to Costa Rica in July 2024 — not long after Jared’s passing — a minister told him, ‘Out of Jared’s death, new life will be born,’” Lynchard says. “Steve and I were astonished because my donation would be the literal fulfillment of those words.”  

“I would have respected Anjie if she had decided not to be my donor, but she said it was as if Jared was telling her to save my life,” says Carroll. 

Through the Living Donor Liver Transplant Program, part of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center (CTC), Lynchard began a few months of testing to see if she was a viable liver donor for Carroll. “When the results showed that Anjie was a match for me, I realized that I was going to get a second chance for life and it was an amazing feeling,” says Carroll. 

The transplant surgery was scheduled for Dec. 3, 2024. When Lynchard learned what day had been chosen for the operation, she felt it had been fated from above. 

“Jared had been deeply inspired by a sermon he heard in church exactly one year earlier, Dec. 3, 2023, that was titled ‘The Perfect Plan,’” says Lynchard. “When I recalled the title, I knew this transplant was destined by God to be that ‘perfect plan’ and that Jared was telling me from heaven, ‘Good job, Mom.’” 

The successful transplant, in which a portion of Lynchard’s liver was surgically removed and implanted in Carroll to replace her failed organ, took 8½ hours. When she was moved from the intensive care unit to a private room, Lynchard was ecstatic to learn it was Room 23. 

“The number was right there hanging above my head,” says Lynchard. “It was supernatural, like God used Jared to bless the surgery and make it possible for Mary Ann to have a new life.” 

The “divine number” 23, Carroll recalls, came up once more on the day of the surgery. 

“After the operation, a medical student who heard about all of the connections to 23 told me that during the transplant surgery, one of the doctors asked for ‘instrument 23 … you know, like Michael Jordan’s number,’” she says. “But we all knew better; it was another amazing heavenly reference to our precious Jared.” 

Along with the operation being novel because of close friends being the donor and recipient, it was special for another reason: it’s believed to be the first time in Maryland that a robotic system was used to procure the right lobe of a living donor’s liver. 

“Traditionally, a large incision is made in the donor’s abdomen to obtain the liver portion needed for the transplant, but recovery can be complicated by post-operative pain and the need for an epidural to manage it, as well as an increased risk of infection,” says Lynchard’s surgeon, Benjamin Philosophe, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director of the CTC. “In this case, we turned to the robotic surgery system — which is minimally invasive — to divide and remove the transplantable healthy lobe of Anjie’s liver in a way that was much easier on her.” 

Philosophe says that the robot approach has significant advantages over the open procedure generally used for liver surgery, and that the same benefits can be achieved in a living liver donor transplant. 

“The robotic arms — which the surgeon controls from a console and are linked to a high-resolution camera — enable us to have magnified views of the surgical field, operate with extremely precise movements, and most importantly, make smaller incisions and perform more delicate tissue removal than open surgery,” he explains. “For the donor, this means less pain, faster recovery and better post-operative outcomes.” 

Lynchard concurs that the robotic surgical procedure was the right way to go. 

“The surgery was done on Tuesday and I went home on Sunday. After two weeks’ recovery, I was moving around nicely and feeling good,” Lynchard says. “Best of all, I expected a big scar and was thrilled to only have a few small ones that healed quickly. For living liver donors, robotic surgery should be the way for the future.” 

Three months after receiving her good friend’s liver donation, Carroll is doing well. A very spiritual person, she feels that there was divine intervention bringing her and Lynchard together, and eventually, leading to the healthy, renewed life that Lynchard’s gracious act made possible.      

“So many things had to happen to make this a reality: our sons being friends, taking Anjie the prayer shawl and her seeing me so sick, finding out that Anjie was a suitable donor, and all of the links to 23 — it’s like God and Jared had a hand in it all,” says Carroll. “I have a photo magnet on my refrigerator of Anjie and Jared, my angel on Earth and my angel in heaven.” 

Both Lynchard and Carroll strongly encourage people to consider becoming a living donor and they hope the option of robotic surgery for the donor will make it more popular. 

Additionally, Lynchard points out that by donating a portion of her liver that Carroll needed for her transplant, someone was able to move up the waiting list for a deceased donor liver. 

“As my nurse practitioner told me, ‘You not only saved Mary Ann’s life, but also a second life,’” says Lynchard. 

Carroll, the beneficiary of her friend’s special gift, fervently hopes that her story will inspire others to become living donors. 

“If you can save a life, why wouldn’t you?” says Carroll. “What greater gift can anyone give.” 

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Lynchard, Carroll and Philosophe are available for media interviews about this special story, the use of robotic surgery in living donor transplants and Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Living Donor programs for liver and kidney transplants. 

For information on services offered by the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center, including living donor programs, go to hopkinsmedicine.org/transplant/programs. 

April is National Donate Life Month, an observance to raise awareness about donation, encourage Americans to register as organ, eye and tissue donors, and honor those who have saved lives through the gift of donation. For more on National Donate Life Month and to register as a donor, go to donatelife.org.