With one liver, surgeons at KU Hospital save two lives
Kansas City.com | Mara Rose Williams
Photo: KEITH MYERS | The Kansas City Star
Pamela Lawson, one of the two recipients of a split liver, talked with doctors Timothy Schmitt (left) and Sean Kumer on Tuesday at the Univesity of Kansas Hospital.
Pamela Lawson had been on the list for a liver transplant since July, waiting for doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital to call.
At 1 a.m. Sept. 22, the phone rang. The hospital had a liver, but there was a catch: It was too large to fit into Lawson’s 5-feet 4-inch, 129-pound body.
So her doctors had decided they would try an operation they said was a first for the Kansas City region. They would cut the liver in two, putting one lobe in Lawson and the other in another small woman needing a healthy liver.
“It’s hard to turn down a perfect organ when you can modify it,†said Timothy Schmitt, one of the two doctors who performed the dual surgery. “Transplant surgery is sometimes like MacGyver surgery. You make it work.â€
At any given time, 16,000 to 17,000 people across the country are waiting for a liver, and only about 6,000 are donated each year. KU has 140 people waiting for liver transplants.
“Nationally, 10 to 12 percent of people needing a transplant die waiting for a liver,†said Sean Kumer, the other doctor who with Schmitt performed the surgeries.
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Pamela Lawson, one of the two recipients of a split liver, talked with doctors Timothy Schmitt (left) and Sean Kumer on Tuesday at the Univesity of Kansas Hospital.
Pamela Lawson had been on the list for a liver transplant since July, waiting for doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital to call.
At 1 a.m. Sept. 22, the phone rang. The hospital had a liver, but there was a catch: It was too large to fit into Lawson’s 5-feet 4-inch, 129-pound body.
So her doctors had decided they would try an operation they said was a first for the Kansas City region. They would cut the liver in two, putting one lobe in Lawson and the other in another small woman needing a healthy liver.
“It’s hard to turn down a perfect organ when you can modify it,†said Timothy Schmitt, one of the two doctors who performed the dual surgery. “Transplant surgery is sometimes like MacGyver surgery. You make it work.â€
At any given time, 16,000 to 17,000 people across the country are waiting for a liver, and only about 6,000 are donated each year. KU has 140 people waiting for liver transplants.
“Nationally, 10 to 12 percent of people needing a transplant die waiting for a liver,†said Sean Kumer, the other doctor who with Schmitt performed the surgeries.
Read More
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