2nd Living-Donor Transplant Is Done
Surgeons on Friday undertook the nation’s second liver transplant from a living donor, removing part of the organ of a 20-year-old Tennessee man and placing it into his 15-month-old daughter.
“It was a very difficult operation, but I expect her to be fairly stable afterward,” said Dr. Christopher Broelsch, the transplant surgeon who performed the surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
In the operation, Robert Jones, a dry-wall installer and contractor from Millington, near Memphis, had the left lobe of his liver removed and the partial organ implanted into his daughter, Sarina, who suffers from a usually fatal disorder called biliary atresia.
The operation lasted 7 1/2 hours. Sarina and her father were listed in critical but stable condition.
Dr. Peter Whitington, director of pediatric transplant services at the hospital, said the operation was not expected to be the most difficult hurdle for Sarina to overcome. “Her difficulty is going to be recovery, convalescing, regaining nutritional status, overcoming any infections,” he said.
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