Leah Zabrowski, Liver Transplant Recipient, Turns Second Chance Into Mission Coaching Hundreds Of Kids

Buffalo Coach’s Second Chance: liver transplant Spurs Lifelong Mission For Youth

USA: Leah Zabrowski, chief operating officer at the Keenan Center in Lockport, New York, rebuilt her life and career after a life-threatening liver failure diagnosis that led to a liver transplant on March 2, 2013. Once a standout college basketball player at SUNY Geneseo, she became suddenly ill during her junior year and was found to have liver enzymes resembling those of a much older, long-term patient while she was only 20. Within months her condition progressed to the point that a transplant became necessary.

The operation on March 2, 2013 restored her health and redirected her purpose. That medical intervention is presented as the defining turning point in her story: a literal second chance that reshaped priorities and inspired a public commitment to organ donation advocacy. Zabrowski now carries deep gratitude for the donor’s decision and has used her recovery as the foundation for outreach and education about the importance of donation.

At the Keenan Center, Zabrowski runs the ACES program—arts, culture, recreation, education and sports—where afternoons are anchored by coaching, drills and life-skill lessons. She is described as a tireless presence in the gym, teaching both sports technique and personal resilience. Program staff and participants note her focus on process over outcome and say she helps hundreds of children each year find safe places to play, learn, and belong.

Her colleagues characterize her work as more than a job: it is a mission born from surviving a near death health crisis and receiving a transplant. That survival fuels ongoing efforts to pay forward the gift she received, ensure youth development in the Buffalo area, and promote organ donation. The narrative centers squarely on the liver transplant and the measurable way that medical care has been parlayed into community leadership and service to the next generation.