Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Son Donating Part of his Liver to Save Mother's Life
Aired August 28, 2001 - 07:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile in the United States, 18,000 people are waiting for liver transplants and the number of those transplants has increased vastly over the past two years. But today, a very special situation, we are taking you through the process live from Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, not outside the hospital, but right there in his scrubs outside of the operating room.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol, that's why I'm wearing these scrubs here. We're in the operating room here at Georgetown University Hospital where an incredible thing is about to take place today. An incredible gift, a gift of life between a son to his mother. The son will be donating over half of his liver to try and save his mother's life. We talked with them earlier this week about just why they're doing this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. AMY LU, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: She ultimately needs to have a transplant for her survival. And I would say if she didn't get a transplant within the year or so she would not survive.
MARK LINTHICUM, LIVER DONOR: The doctors at Georgetown had brought up this living donor program to me and, of course, I had to think about it for a few minutes. So I think it took me about three, but anything for my mother.
DOROTHY LINTHICUM, LIVER RECIPIENT: It was something that he just decided to do on his own.
LU: We take out her whole liver -- her whole damaged liver and then we put in his portion of the liver. And basically we figure out how much we need for her. You need about 1 percent of her -- of a person's body mass in liver tissue to -- for the liver to function properly and be able to regenerate the remaining portion.
M. LINTHICUM: They're going to prep her first and have her basically ready to receive and make sure that everything's going to be OK with her before they even bother cutting into me.
LU: The recipient's risks are really not much greater in terms of the complications. It lies in the donor risk because this is a much bigger operation for them to undergo. And those complications are -- involve bleeding because it's more liver that we take out, infection and complication with wounds and so forth.
M. LINTHICUM: I wasn't too concerned with, you know, myself, I was more concerned with how she was going to do.
D. LINTHICUM: It's very special and, you know, he's giving me a chance to live longer. Of course apparently he wants to hold on to me for a little bit longer.
M. LINTHICUM: You're my mom, so, like I said, you know, how many chances do you give -- do you get to give back, you know. And, you know, anything for you, mom. You did -- you gave me life, at least I can give it back to you.
D. LINTHICUM: Well, I guess we have to make this paid in full.
M. LINTHICUM: Yes, I would think so. I would think so.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: Really just an incredible story.
Joining us to talk a bit more about this is Dr. Lynt Johnson who is chief of transplant surgery here at Georgetown University Hospital.
A living son donating part of his liver to his living mother. Talk a little bit about that, Dr. Johnson.
DR. LYNT JOHNSON, CHIEF OF TRANSPLANT SURGERY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Well, it's a -- it's probably one of the most courageous things that anyone can ever do. And it always boggles my mind the courage of these donors to come forward to volunteer for an operation where they would donate, you know, more than half of their liver for someone that they love. But I believe that they understand that on the other side of it the waiting times for these donors and the risk of dying while waiting on the list is so high that that really is the fact that drives them to do something like this.
GUPTA: Right, really an amazing act of courage. Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on behind you here?
JOHNSON: Well, we're preparing the operating room. The donor has just come into the room and he's getting monitors placed on to be placed under anesthesia and we'll prepare him for surgery. It will be an all-day affair. The surgery will last on this side for about probably six to eight hours and on the other side another six to eight hours and so we'll be all day.
GUPTA: And that's carefully orchestrated so this operation will still be going on while you actually start the operation on the mother, is that right?
JOHNSON: That's correct, in the adjacent operating room.
GUPTA: And how do you know when to begin that?
JOHNSON: Well, we have a little timing sequence that we go through and so at a certain stage in this operation we then call for the recipient to come down and begin her operation. And generally it's when we know everything has gone well and proceeding well with the donor.
GUPTA: OK, great. Well, we'll keep you posted on this incredible gift, a gift of life, throughout the day here at Georgetown University Hospital. And we'll be keeping posted with Dr. Lynt Johnson, the chief of transplant surgery.
Back to you, Carol.
LIN: All right, thanks so much, Sanjay.
And you're going to watch it all live right here on CNN as we dip in and out of that procedure.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: That's a pretty incredible story. And talk about coverage being right there.
LIN: The ultimate gift. Good for that son.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
