1. Except for a loose association of medical groups that shared tips on available organs, there was no organized way to find a healthy infant liver for their daughter. 2. HepAssist is a plasma circuit designed to provide patients with many of the essential metabolic functions of a healthy liver. 3. Healthy livers are in such short supply that hundreds of people die each year awaiting a transplant, experts note. 4. Hospital officials would not release any information about the donor of the liver other than to say it was a patient elsewhere who had died with a healthy liver. 5. Jane had to wait for someone with the right blood type, a healthy liver and a donor card to die in Northern California. 6. One week later, after a series of chilling coincidences, a healthy infant liver appeared. 7. Total removal of the diseased liver and transplantation of a healthy liver was the only option. 8. The transplants are common in Europe, where they are used to help critically ill patients who might not survive the long waits for a healthy liver. 9. Without the new livers, neither women would have lived more than about six months and would not have survived the wait for a healthy liver, doctors said. |