2nd Infant Rallies, May Get Liver Implant Next Week

Teresa Smith, who made medical history Monday by donating part of her liver to her 21-month-old daughter Alyssa, was still in too much pain Friday to visit her steadily recuperating daughter, University of Chicago physicians said.

Meanwhile, 15-month-old Sarina Jones, whose scheduled living-donor liver transplant last Wednesday was canceled when she developed a life-threatening infection, has improved markedly and the university’s medical center flew her to Chicago from a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., Friday afternoon in anticipation of performing the transplant early next week.

Dr. Peter F. Whitington plans to evaluate Sarina’s condition for at least a full day before making any decision on the innovative transplant, hospital spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said. As soon as Sarina is healthy enough to withstand the surgery, Fetsch noted, Dr. Christoph E. Broelsch will perform the transplant.

Alyssa Smith’s condition was upgraded from “critical” to “serious” as she continues to improve and the transplanted liver continues to function well. “She’s alert, she’s looking around, she’s very responsive,” Fetsch said. “It appears she’s trying to act like a normal 2-year-old again, which we’re thrilled about.”

Both Alyssa and Sarina suffer from biliary atresia, a congenital condition in which the bile ducts, which deliver digestive enzymes from the liver to the intestines, become blocked, damaging the liver. Broelsch removed about one-third of Teresa Smith’s liver Monday and implanted it in her daughter, attempting to reverse the condition.

The procedure had been performed four times previously in other countries.

Sarina’s father, Robert Jones, 20, will serve as her donor. Her mother, Michelle, 21, is the wrong blood type to serve as a donor. Physicians normally prefer to use the mother as a donor because female livers are typically smaller than male livers, so the severed lobe is more likely to fit into an infant’s tiny chest.

But Robert Jones is small in stature, Whitington said, and his liver is actually smaller than Terri Smith’s.