Jestine Reider is more than a sister to John Kreider.

"She's my angel," said Kreider, 40, an arborist from West Donegal Township.

On July 29, Reider, of Conewago Township, Dauphin County, allowed surgeons at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to remove 60 percent of her healthy liver to be transplanted into her brother's body to replace his own failing organ.

For Reider, the sacrifice was a no-brainer.

"He's my brother," she said Wednesday morning at Hershey Medical Center. "I don't want him to die."

The operations represent Hershey Medical Center's first adult living-donor liver transplant — a rare procedure offered by only three hospitals in Pennsylvania.

At a news conference Wednesday at the hospital, doctors said the operations went well and both patients are recovering.

"The liver is the most resilient organ in the body," said Dr. Ian Schreibman, a gastroenterologist who participated in the transplant surgeries. "It's the only organ in the body that regenerates … and we're very fortunate that it does, because we are able to do this wonderful procedure that we did."

Kreider's liver problems began after he had his colon removed in 2001 due to ulcerative colitis.

According to Dr. Zakiyah Kadry, chief of transplant surgery at Hershey Medical Center and lead surgeon in Kreider's liver transplant, Kreider's liver function gradually diminished over the ensuing seven years.

Schreibman called the liver "the primary processing plant in the body."

It "takes the food you eat and processes it for your energy and fuel."

The liver also is "an immunologic organ that helps people fight off infections," he said. "If you don't have a functioning liver, your body is prone to infections, which is what was happening in John's case.

"You basically cannot survive without a functioning liver."

Fourteen months ago, Kadry said, Kreider was placed on Hershey Medical Center's waiting list for a liver transplant.

But because he has a rare blood type and because his liver was growing weaker, doctors were worried he might not live long enough for a suitable liver to be harvested from a deceased organ donor.

Kreider knew Hershey Medical Center received its certification to perform live-donor liver transplants in 2006, but he said he never considered it.

Fortunately for him, his sister did.

"I read about it in a pamphlet here at the hospital," Reider said.

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Within two months, Kadry said, the partial livers in both patients' livers should grow back to full capacity.

"This is considered to be a curative surgery," she said.

There have been some cases in which the liver recipient's new organ has failed again, but Kadry and Schreibman said those are rare.

The tricky part of the live-donor transplant is finding a suitable donor for the recipient.

Both people have to have compatible, though not necessarily identical, blood types.

And doctors must be confident that the donor can give up enough of his or her liver to keep the recipient alive until the regeneration occurs, while not jeopardizing the donor's life.

"You have to look at the height and weight," Kadry said. "A 4-foot lady cannot donate to a 6-foot man."

At Hershey Medical Center, the live-donor option is offered only to patients who are not likely to survive the wait for an organ donation from a dead person.

In the United States, more than 16,000 people are listed on the United Network of Organ Sharing as being in need of livers.

But only about 6,000 liver transplants are performed each year, Kadry said.

About 2,000 people in need of liver transplants die each year waiting for new livers, she said.

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Kreider had no idea his sister was considering donating part of her liver to him.

Reider said she made the decision to begin the rigorous evaluation process between October and December of last year.

"If you have siblings, you understand that bond," she said. "Your family is everything. You just do it. No questions."

There was no guarantee the two would be compatible. Even though Kreider and Reider are legally brother and sister, biologically, they are cousins.

Reider's parents, Donald and Tina Kreider of Elizabethtown, adopted John when he was 10 years old. He is the same age as Jestine.

"We grew up together like any normal siblings," Reider said.

Through testing, doctors determined Reider shared Kreider's blood type and she could stand to give up the 60 percent of her liver that Kreider needed and still have enough left to sustain her own life.

"We knew we had a large safety margin and that she had more than enough to live on, regardless if the regeneration occurs now or whatever," Kadry said.

Kreider called it a "freak of nature" that his sister's liver was compatible with his body.

Reider had a different explanation.

"There was somebody looking over us," she said. "God played a part in this."

On July 29, Kadry led the team of doctors that spent seven hours operating on Reider and 14 hours operating on Kreider.

Both were walking the next day, Kadry said.

Reider was discharged from the hospital Tuesday to return to her husband, Scott, and their son, Colton, 8.

Kadry said she hopes to return Kreider to his wife, Linda, and their sons, Nathaniel, 14, and Patrick, 12, by the end of the week.

"From here it's just recoup," Kreider said. "I've got to heal up and get back to work" for Green's Tree Service in Elizabethtown.

Reider is eager to enjoy a long life with her brother.

"I gave my brother another 50 years — maybe more," she said. "I just love him."

E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com