Liver-transplant patient gives birth
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-03-20 10:51

A Chinese woman who had a liver transplant four years ago has smoothly given birth to a baby boy in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Born with an emergency Cesarean section Thursday evening in the Huaxi No.2 Hospital, the baby was still in danger, but the 25-year-old woman Luo Jiwei was in a good condition, according to Zeng Weiyue, a doctor with the hospital.

The baby, weighing only two kg, has difficulty breathing and was in a critical condition after being born at 6:24 p.m. Thursday, Zeng said.

"The baby's situation was better after emergency treatment, but it isn't out of danger yet," the doctor said.

It was the first childbirth by a liver transplant patient in China and the operation went well, said Zeng, who added that doctors found the fetus was abnormally less active on Thursday morning and decided to immediately carry out the operation, which was scheduled for the next month.

Luo Jiwei had suffered from sclerotic cholangitis and liver abscesses. When she was transferred to the hospital in September 2000, she was on the verge of death.

Without a liver transplant, she would have survived only one month, said Yan Lunan, a physician in charge of the liver transplant operation.

In the wake of group consultation, Luo had a liver transplant operation the same month she was hospitalized. As the operation was successful, she was discharged from the hospital three weeks later.

After seeking approval from Dr. Yan, Luo got married at the end of 2002 and was found pregnant at a routine medical check at the hospital last November.

To ensure a safe delivery, obstetricians at the Huaxi hospital had decided to perform a C-section in April.

Liver transplant is considered the most difficult operation of all organ transplants. Since the first liver transplant was conducted in the United States in 1963, 100,000 patients have undergone the procedure around the world. Thirty-seven became pregnant after the operation.

Huaxi No.2 Hospital, one of the five research centers performing liver transplants in China, conducted the first liver transplant in 1979. Enditem
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