2-For-1 Liver Transplant Saves Two
The transplant surgeon had good news: A donated liver was on the way for critically ill Maggie Catherwood. Then he asked: Would she let doctors cut off part of her new liver to share with an equally sick baby?
"I can't imagine anyone saying no," the 21-year-old college student said last week as, teary-eyed, she met 8-month-old Allison Brown, carefully cuddling the wide-eyed baby so as not to bump each other's healing incisions.
A liver is unlike any other organ: A piece of a healthy one can grow into a whole organ in about a month. That's why some people receive liver transplants from living donors who have just a portion of their organ cut out and given away.
Split-liver donation is different. It divides an organ donated when someone dies, to try to save two lives with one donation.
Full A.P. wire service article, SF Chronicle, March 19/20, 2007
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Sometimes, modern medicine gets it right. A fascinating article.
TLC
"I can't imagine anyone saying no," the 21-year-old college student said last week as, teary-eyed, she met 8-month-old Allison Brown, carefully cuddling the wide-eyed baby so as not to bump each other's healing incisions.
A liver is unlike any other organ: A piece of a healthy one can grow into a whole organ in about a month. That's why some people receive liver transplants from living donors who have just a portion of their organ cut out and given away.
Split-liver donation is different. It divides an organ donated when someone dies, to try to save two lives with one donation.
Full A.P. wire service article, SF Chronicle, March 19/20, 2007
_____________________________
Sometimes, modern medicine gets it right. A fascinating article.
TLC
posted by TLC's Place at 7:18 AM
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