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Pioneering transplant gives girl new life
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A 6-year-old girl left Zhongshan Hospital yesterday after last month becoming the first child ever to undergo a liver transplant using part of an organ “discarded” by an adult patient.
The procedure to save the youngster, nicknamed Tongtong, was the first of its kind ever conducted, Dr He Yifeng told Shanghai Daily.
Tongtong, who comes from Sichuan Province, was born with a liver malfunction, which stunted her growth and left her with a debilitating skin condition, He said.
At 92 centimeters tall and weighing just 13 kilograms, the child is about 25cm shorter and 7kg lighter than her peers, he said.
Hospitals across the country had been treating Tongtong’s illness for several years, but it was not until last summer that she was referred to Zhongshan Hospital for a transplant procedure.
After struggling to find a suitable donor — neither the child’s mother nor father were suitable — doctors became concerned that time was running out.
When Tongtong fell into a coma at the start of the year, they appealed to a patient at the hospital.
The woman, surnamed Zhou, was scheduled to have part of her liver cut away in order to remove a benign tumor. Doctors asked her if she would be prepared to donate the discarded portion to Tongtong.
The 43-year-old Shanghai native agreed and the operation was carried out on January 9.
“She (Zhou) was really generous. The girl would likely have died within three days if we hadn’t carried out the operation when we did,” Dr He said.
After a month in recovery, Tongtong was declared fit to return home yesterday.
Dr He said that surgeons at the hospital almost carried out a similar procedure last year.
“We were ready to do the operation, but had to cancel it after we found there was a chance that the cancer might return to the discarded section of the liver,” he said.
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