A woman has given her nine-month baby a second life by donating part of her liver in Shanghai on Sunday.
Surgeons said the baby, the youngest in such cases in China, is still in critical condition but the mother is recovering well.
The baby girl, named Yangyang, is the younger of girl twins born in Shanghai. Suffering from biliary atresia, which then developed to serious liver failure and bleeding inside her head, the baby almost died.
"A liver transplant was the only way to save her," said Zhen Shan, a surgeon at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University. "We couldn't wait although the operation is quite risky. The baby would have died soon without receiving a liver transplant."
"I didn't think too much as I heard the only way to save my child was to donate my liver. I believe all mothers would do this to save their child," said the 31-year-old mother Hu Yan when interviewed by a Shanghai TV station.
The surgery was conducted jointly by surgeons of two neighbouring hospitals: Zhongshan Hospital and Children's Hospital of Fudan University, which have jointly performed five such operations for children.
Starting from 8:30 PM on Sunday, a group of surgeons, led by Fan Jia, took a quarter of the mother's healthy liver at Zhongshan Hospital. Meanwhile, the baby's bad liver was cut out at Children's Hospital.
At 2:00 PM, the two groups of surgeons came together to transplant the mother's liver into the baby's body.
Seven surgeons carefully, and skillfully, connected the arteries, veins and bile duct of the baby with the donated liver.
"All this was done under magnification and quickly, because the diameter of the vessels was only 0.3mm," said Dr Fan.
At around 6:00 PM, the whole surgery was completed smoothly.
The mother woke soon after the surgery and is recovering well. "Soon after the baby's surgery, I informed the mother the baby was doing well," said Dr Zhen.
However, the baby is still under close watch and bleeding occurred the first day after the surgery. Up until now, the baby is maintaining good condition.
"A liver donated by close relatives is better for children than that from dead bodies, because the liver is fresh, healthy and causes less rejection," said Zhen.
"Close relative organ donation may solve the worldwide problem of organ shortage, and this is especially important for China where hepatitis and liver diseases are prevalent," Dr Fan said.
Among the more than 1 million Chinese patients suffering from liver failure, only about 5,000 transplants are performed each year and more patients die waiting for a matching organ, doctors said.
(China Daily January 11, 2005)
