Miami Doctors Perform ‘Domino’ Liver Transplant

Doctors at the University of Miami Medical Center said Friday they had performed the first “domino” liver transplant, in which the healthy liver of a patient receiving a multi-organ transplant was used to save the life of a second person.

In the procedure, performed on April 11 but publicized only on Friday, the healthy liver of a 17-year-old Pennsylvania girl who underwent the transplant of several organs was given to a second patient, a woman who was near death with liver failure.

The two transplants were performed at the same time, in a measure that doctors said offered a real chance to make the best use of the limited supply of donor organs that become available each year.