Girl Recovering After 5-Organ Transplant

Doctors on Tuesday transplanted five organs into a 4-year-old girl who was born with an intestine too short to absorb nutrition properly.

Charlie Fourstar, who lives on Montana’s Ft. Peck Indian Reservation, was listed in critical condition but doing well after receiving a liver, stomach, pancreas and small and large intestines in a 16-hour operation at Presbyterian University Hospital.

“She’s doing fine,” said one of her doctors, Satoru Todo. He said she was waking up and her liver was beginning to produce bile, which was a good sign.

The child was born with shortgut syndrome, in which the small intestine cannot absorb nutrition properly, and has been fed intravenously. If the operation succeeds, she will be able to eat normally.

“I got a call about 6 this morning and they told me Charlie’s liver has arrived and I got up and I started running in circles,” said the girl’s grandmother, Odessa Fourstar. “I was happy, very happy.”

The intravenous feeding destroyed Charlie’s liver and affected her stomach. She also received a pancreas and large intestine because stomach transplants usually include those organs, a spokeswoman said.