I've lost a family member to end stage liver failure. What I can tell you is that each case is different and by no means should you consider one doctor's opinion as the end all be all.

For my cousin, she was a heavy drinker. She likely had been living with severe liver damage for some time before it finally caught up to her. Over the course of a month she managed to critically damage her liver and had to be rushed to the hospital.

She spent the next month sober, probably for the first time in 20 years. Doctors ran tests and tried their best to get her liver to function, but there was nothing they could do -- she absolutely needed a transplant. She was diagnosed with end stage liver failure and sent home to receive care from hospice. Her prognosis was one to two weeks left to live.

After returning home her body began to retain tremendous amounts of water, she looked as though she was 9 months pregnant and her feet had doubled in size. She was unable to get up or even walk. She slept for 20 to 22 hours a day and had little to no appetite, she would ask for ice chips to suck on every once in a while.

After four weeks, an increase in pain medication and even more water retention, she passed away.