Boy Dies During 4th Liver Transplant

Brett Williams, a toddler whose three liver transplants were overshadowed by a Florida boy’s struggle for life, died Thursday while undergoing a fourth transplant.

The Alum Bank boy died on the operating table as surgeons were completing his fourth transplant, only the second such operation performed at Children’s Hospital, spokeswoman Lynn McMahon said.

Brett, who would have been 4 years old next month, was placed back on the waiting list for a liver transplant earlier this week after his third transplanted organ began to malfunction, she said. Until then, he had been making progress with his third donor organ and had gone outside for brief strolls with his parents.

Brett received his first donor organ on April 3 as surgeons in the next operating room were transplanting a second liver into Ronnie DeSillers of Miami. Ronnie, 7, had received his first transplanted liver five weeks earlier, but the organ malfunctioned.

Ronnie, his second donor organ also failing, received his third transplant on April 23. He was awaiting his fourth when he died April 29.