AZ - In a UMC first, liver is shared by 2 recipients

[Guest guest]

The

lives of two Arizonans — a tiny baby and a full-grown man — have

been saved by the first split-liver transplant ever performed at University

Medical Center. The rare transplant

surgery gave one-third of a donor liver to 6-month-old

Lara-Neri of Phoenix and the remaining two-thirds to Rocky Steely, 51, of Sierra Vista. Both patients were

suffering end-stage liver disease at the time of the transplant, performed in

back-to-back surgeries by UMC's new abdominal

transplant team on July 20 and 21. Neither patient would have survived without

the shared liver from the unidentified deceased donor, doctors say. " Donated

organs are so rare and so precious, " said Dr. Ernesto Molmenti,

chief of UMC's abdominal transplant program, who

performed the double transplant with UA surgery chief

Dr. Hugo Villar.

For the whole story & picture…..

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/dailystar/143302

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