NEW YORK CITY, NY (CortacaToday) — Sean Ferrito, graduate of Homer High School and Ithaca College, is looking for a living donor liver transplant as a result of having a rare blood disorder.

Ferrito now lives in New York City, but made quite a name for himself in the game of lacrosse in Homer and Ithaca. In high school, he was a three-letter winner for his head coach Tom Cottrell and earned all-league honors twice for the Homer Trojans. At Ithaca College, he continued being a valuable asset to his team by consistently scoring goals, making assists, and collecting ground balls.

In February of 2023, Sean was unexpectedly hospitalized for what turned out to be a blood clot caused by a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN). The condition hadn’t bothered him before and was essentially dormant until last year. As a result of the blood clot and being more prone to them because of the MPN, issues with his liver started to arise, with his doctor putting him tentatively on a wait list for a transplant in June of 2023.

“There’s been changes in the past month or so and my doctors have ramped things up. They’re hoping for me to be able to find a donor within the next six months now. It was on pause because I was doing well before, so they didn’t set a definitive timeline,” says Ferrito.

Despite a stronger sense of urgency to find a donor now, Sean has felt the support of more people than he had expected.

“I’ve learned in the past year that there’s a lot of altruistic people out there. People have personal connections that I didn’t anticipate, which has helped to get the message in front of the right people,” he says.

The type of transplant Sean is searching for is a fairly new science, allowing for a living donor to give a piece of their liver to the recipient. According to the Mayo Clinic, the donor’s liver will then regrow and return to its normal size, volume, and capacity. The transplanted piece of liver will grow and restore normal liver function for the recipient as well. To learn more about it, watch this video from New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University, and Weill Cornell Medicine:

Ultimately, spreading the word and exposing Sean’s search to as many people as possible is what is needed at this time. For more information and specifics about what Sean is looking for, refer to this flyer: