CLDT Emergency Liver Transplant Profiled by NYT
The August 18, 2009 The New York Times profiled an emergency liver transplant in an American patient who became ill while traveling overseas. The procedure, which faced tremendous odds, was coordinated and performed by the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation (CLDT).
The patient, 16-year-old Jessa Perrin was on a trip to Israel where, her liver suddenly failed due to the rare genetic disorder Wilson's disease. On July 15, she had entered lung and kidney failure and her heart began to show signs of damage. She needed a liver transplant immediately, or she would die. Her chances of finding a suitable donor liver were much better in the U.S. than the tiny country of Israel, and Hadassah Hebrew Medical Center Hospital, where she was unconscious and on a respirator, started contacting transplant centers in New York. The first to respond was the CLDT, where Kara Ventura, DNP, a transplant coordinator at the CLDT answered the call from Hadassah's liver unit at about 3 a.m. on Thursday, July 16.
The team at the CLDT went into action, knowing Jessa had two days left at the most, unless her liver was transplanted. Steven Lobritto, MD, CLDT Medical Director, advised the Israeli hospital to perform plasmapheresis in order to stabilize the patient's health so that she could survive the trip to New York. Once stabilized, she was put on an airplane in a makeshift ICU. While the plane was in the air, Dr. Lobritto called the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and requested Jessa be added to the top of the transplant list and that the donor liver be made available before the plane landed (an exception to UNOS's policy that a recipient be examined before a liver can be made available). Surgeon James Guarrerra, MD, was flown by chartered jet to the location of the liver donor in Tennessee to retrieve the organ, which belonged to a 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy left brain-dead by a breathing disorder. Transplant surgeon Tomoaki Kato, MD, performed the transplant at 1:00 am on July 17.
Jessa's condition turned around almost immediately, with all of her organs intact. She is likely to return to school by the middle of September two months from her transplant.
