The greatest gift
If you came across senior Zsofi Karetka on campus, you might find her taking notes in an engineering technology class in Kettering Labs or sitting in the chapel, attending Mass with her roommates. You may even see her running in the student neighborhood as she trains for yet another marathon.
With so many different pursuits, it’s no wonder her mother, Livia Karetka, describes her as being “born determined.” If you tell Zsofi she can’t do something, she proves otherwise.
“She had this determination growing up and, in school, wanted to be the best,” Livia said. “That’s what Zsofi is known for — how hard she works. It’s not something that falls into her lap.”
“That’s what Zsofi is known for — how hard she works. It’s not something that falls into her lap.”
If you were to look at, or even speak to, Zsofi today you wouldn’t know that just a few years ago she was in desperate search of an organ donor.
In 2021, during the fall of her senior year of high school, after three years of inexplicable health anomalies and bouncing from doctor to doctor without a comprehensive diagnosis, Zsofi and her family finally received confirmation from the Cleveland Clinic that she had cirrhosis of the liver — a late-stage indicator of liver disease.
Her condition was advanced, and doctors indicated that she would need a transplant within the next three years.
“They first said I’d need a liver transplant in January of 2022. At that point, I heard it and thought there was no way that’s really happening. They were just saying the worst possible scenario,” Zsofi said.
Within months, her condition worsened, and the worst possible scenario became a reality. After a hospitalization in August 2022, doctors told Zsofi that she was too sick to go to college for her first year.
But Zsofi was determined to try. Working closely with her UD adviser and professors and leaning on her on-campus older brother, Levente Karetka ’25, for support, she was able to manage back-and-forth trips to the Cleveland Clinic as doctors monitored her condition and searched for a donor.
Doctors began genetic testing for Zsofi’s parents, hoping to find a perfect match for a live-transplant donation, and found that her mom met all of the criteria. After months of waiting and almost-donations, Zsofi would be receiving a lobe of her mother’s liver.
It was one of many “God moments” they experienced while Zsofi was sick, Livia explained.
Random, perfect and seemingly divine moments that can only be explained by their unrelenting faith — like when the mother and daughter were separated on surgery day, but a delay in Livia’s surgery allowed them to cross paths in the surgical wing beforehand. The pair got to hold hands before being taken into their respective operating rooms.
“It was like watching a movie. A really cool and interesting movie, and we were actually the actors in that movie — with it all happening to us,” Livia said.
Since their successful surgeries, Zsofi and Livia have been healthy — with Zsofi even taking up running and participating in her first 5K, half-marathon and marathon within a year of her liver transplant.
Today, Zsofi lives her life like any other college senior — studying for finals and hanging out with her friends — just with regular testing to ensure her liver remains healthy. She is not defined by her health struggles but by how she overcame them.
“I don’t want [having a liver transplant] to be the most interesting thing about me,” Zsofi said. “I want to be known for how I recovered from it and for how strong my faith is.”
The mother and daughter credit their family’s love and support with getting them through the tough times during Zsofi’s health journey.
“It’s the greatest gift,” Zsofi said. “My mom gave me a second chance at life.”
“It’s the greatest gift. My mom gave me a second chance at life.”
Photographs by Sylvia Stahl '18
A version of this article appears in print in the Summer 2026 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 7. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE