Girl Recovering From Mushrooms
Doctors in San Francisco said Saturday that they had removed the donor liver from a young girl who underwent a partial liver transplant after eating poisonous mushrooms, adding that the girl is recovering.
In a rare procedure, doctors last week removed the transplanted liver after finding that 13-year-old Jennifer Chang’s injured liver was quickly regenerating itself.
She left the hospital Thursday to recover at home. Her doctors said she was in good condition Saturday and was no longer taking anti-rejection drugs, which could have increased her susceptibility to infection.
“She probably will have perfect health from this,” said Jean Emond, director of pediatric liver transplantation at UC San Francisco Medical Center. “This operation succeeded beyond our wildest expectations.”
About 70% of her own liver is intact. A healthy patient can live with as little as 30% of her own liver.
Wild mushrooms grew around the area after recent rains. Jennifer, two brothers and her mother fell seriously ill after mistakenly picking and eating the highly toxic “death cap” variety.
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