Liver Transplant Patient From Scripps Goes Home

David Homan, the first of Scripps Clinic’s liver transplant patients to leave the hospital, went home to the University City area of San Diego Tuesday,

Homan, 50, underwent the surgery Sept. 11 and recovered relatively quickly, apparently because he was in good physical condition beforehand, his doctors said. A second transplant patient, Bobbie O’Brien, 61, of Whittier is scheduled to leave the clinic’s Green Hospital Thursday.

The most recent liver recipient, Thomas King, 53, of Fallbrook, is in good condition after surgery Sept. 17, and he could be released as soon as next week, said Dr. John Brems, head of the multi-organ transplant program at Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation.

The liver transplants are the first done in San Diego since 1988, when UC San Diego suspended its program after too many patients died. Sharp Memorial Hospital also previously had an unsuccessful liver transplant program.

Scripps’ first patient died during surgery July 26. But Brems and Dr. Howard Takiff, the other liver transplant surgeon at Scripps, are encouraged by the survival of the three subsequent patients past the early postoperative period.

Five other people are on the waiting list for liver transplants there.