Organ transplant ops make medical history

Three children, including an eight-month-old baby girl, and two adults received organs from two donors in a series of operations carried out at two Birmingham hospitals.

A 14-year-old from Bradford received liver, bowels and pancreas from the first donor, while the stomach, bowels and pancreas from the second donor were given to an 11-year-old patient.

It is the first time in Europe that two patients have had multiple abdominal organ transplants on one day.

In another sequence of surgeries, one half of the liver from the second donor was given to eight-month-old Lubaya Turpin from Birmingham.

Lubaya was born with a rare liver condition and her parents said she had begun showing improvements just days after the surgery in June.

The second half of the liver from the donor was given to 30-year-old Sandie Lee Smith, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Ms Smith suffers from a condition where her body does not produce enough enzymes to break down toxins.

She donated her own liver to cancer patient Sean O’Brien, from Somerset, who was not eligible to receive a healthy organ because of his serious condition.

Darius Mirza from the team of doctors from the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and University Hospitals Birmingham who carried out the surgery urged more people to donate organs.

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