Heart-Liver Transplant Patient Recovering Well, Her Doctor Says

A 36-year-old woman who underwent what may have been the first heart-liver transplant in the western United States over the weekend is doing well, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles said Wednesday. Christine Galan was suffering from complications of lupus, including a dysfunction in her heart and multiple stones and narrowing in her liver, said Dr. Steven Colquhoun, who led the liver transplant team.

By Sunday night, Galan wanted to get out of bed and was asking for solid food, the doctor said. Tuesday she was sitting up in bed and chatting. Doctors believe that Galan, who has been hospitalized since Aug. 11, will be able to go home around Nov. 8.

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II