- Wearing a pink dress, an Italian baby girl who received
eight new organs in a single transplant operation cried and cooed yesterday
as her mother held her in her arms.
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- "Her biggest feeling is happiness," said a
doctor who was translating for Monica Di Matteo, 39, mother of Alessia,
seven-and-a-half months. On her daughter's future, the mother was "hoping
for a normal life." Alessia, of Genoa, was born with congenital smooth
muscle disorder, which prevented normal function of her stomach, intestines
and kidneys. The condition is fatal if untreated.
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- She underwent an operation six weeks ago at Jackson Memorial
Hospital, in Miami, Florida, in which received a new liver, stomach, pancreas,
small intestine, large intestine, spleen and two kidneys. Dr Andreas Tzakis,
the lead surgeon, said the organs were taken from the same donor and transplanted
together.
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- Dr Tzakis said doctors would be cautious with Alessia
during her first year after the surgery. She is expected to remain in Miami
for several weeks under observation.
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- "We are not at ease at all about the baby's condition
and we're going to be quite nervous for the first year," Dr Tzakis
said yesterday.
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- A transplant team from the University of Miami performed
the 12-hour operation on 31 January, when Alessia was six months old.
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- The transplant was a record for the hospital, which is
one of the leading centres for "multi-visceral" operations, having
done nearly 100 in the last 10 years, Dr Tzakis said. More than 80 per
cent of patients survive the first year after the surgery, he said.
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- Officials said the previous record-holder for a multiple
organ transplant was another Italian baby, Eugenia Borgo, who had a seven-organ
transplant in 1997. The girl is now in grade school and healthy, Dr Tzakis
said.
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- Before the transplants, Alessia was hospital-bound with
multiple infections. She now weighs about 5.8kg (13 pounds) and is fed
through a tube, but is out of the intensive care unit, Dr Tzakis said.
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- Doctors are monitoring her intestines, which are most
likely to develop infections.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=503113
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