Five-year-old Lani still takes seven medicines with her breakfast every morning.
"She's very good about it," says her father David. Lani is alive today because
of her father David, in more than one way; when she was one year old she
received part of her father's liver in a liver transplant operation. Lani was
born with a liver illness. {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}Doctors
advised that a transplant was the only way in which she would live.
The operation lasted 12 hours and needed two teams, one for the father
and one for the daughter. {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}In these
cases, the donor's liver grows to normal size in about eight weeks. And the
child's liver becomes smaller. Lani spent three weeks in
hospital after the operation. Because the receiver's body tries to reject the
new organ, the patient has to be given special drugs. {{U}} {{U}}
3 {{/U}} {{/U}} Although David left hospital after 10
days, he didn't return to work until after three months. In order to reach the
liver, the doctors have to cut through the stomach wall, which is strong and
full of muscle. It therefore takes a long time to recover after this operation.
{{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}So far, only 16 of these
liver-transplant operations have been carried out in Britain. {{U}}
{{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}Doctors say, "If possible, we prefer to take a
liver from a dead donor, usually a parent." Lani still has to
look after her health, and she gets more tired than other children of the same
age, but doctors hope that she will continue to get stronger and
stronger. A．She had one operation when she was six weeks old,
which was not successful. B．While these drugs are given, it is
important that the patient does not catch any illness, not even a
cold. C．In this operation a piece of liver, weighing about
250—300 grams, was removed from the father and transplanted into the
daughter. D．David quickly recovered from the
operation. E．However, they are more common in North America and
Japan. F．David was finally able to ride his bike again after
about a year.