Daughters give livers to save dad in world-first surgery

Father Cheng Chi-ming (front) with his wife and daughters at the press conference announcing the liver transplant

Queen Mary hospital has successfully performed the world’s first simultaneous dual graft implantation.

According to south china morning post, doctors said this new way of conducting operations had enabled them to form a whole liver with two donated parts from the daughters before transplanting it into the body of the patient who had suffered acute
liver failure.

All three are in satisfactory condition.
The recipient was a 59-year-old Hong Kong resident Cheng Chi-Ming a hepatitis B carrier. He was admitted in Macau on July 11 and was transferred to Queen Mary hospital in Pok Ku Lam.

Shortly after his arrival at the Queen Mary his liver function deteriorated and he went into a grade 4 hepatic coma.

 The operating team assessed that he needed an urgent liver transplant. The security guards three daughters were evaluated for possible liver donations. The second and third, nicknamed Lam Lam, 23, and Kei Kei, 22 were found suitable donors with a matching blood type but each daughter’s liver was comparatively small.

The hospitals liver transfer team decided to use two thirds of Kei Kei’s liver and one third of lam lam’s liver (who had to fly back from Portugal) to form a bigger liver.

The team joined the left and right liver lobes to form a whole liver before transplanting it to Cheng. The two procedures took 55 minutes the doctors said.

"I would like to thank my family and the medical team of Queen Mary Hospital for taking care of me and saving my life. I am confident of my future now."