Years living with an autoimmune disease meant it was a matter of when, not if, Adam Barnes would need a liver transplant. That time was approaching after he was hospitalized for a blocked bile duct in 2024. The idea of seeking a living donor came up but there was something about it that turned him off.
Barnes, the University of Wisconsin senior associate athletic director for business operations, initially didn’t want someone else to go through the danger of elective surgery and a painful recovery to benefit him.