Macau father and two daughters participate in world's first double liver transplant in Hong Kong
Live transplant at Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital involved simultaneous operations
Queen Mary Hospital has successfully performed the world's first live liver transplant involving simultaneous operations on a father and two of his daughters.
Doctors said this new way of conducting such 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.
The recipient was 59-year-old Cheng Chi-ming, a hepatitis B carrier. He was admitted to Kiang Wu Hospital in his hometown of Macau on July 11 and then transferred to Queen Mary in Pok Fu Lam.
He was already in the final stage of a coma before the surgery was undertaken and could have died if the operating team was unable to find a suitable liver within a week, doctors said.
The security guard's three daughters were evaluated for possible liver donations. The second and third, nicknamed Lam Lam, 23, and Kei Kei, 22, were found to be suitable donors with a matching blood type. But their livers were too small for their father, so the operation team decided to use two-thirds of Kei Kei's liver and one-third of Lam Lam's to form a bigger one.
If one donor is enough, we will absolutely choose that way
Dr Lo Chung-mau, a member of the team, noted that Lam Lam had a minor fatty liver problem, which was why they took less from her.