Birmingham hospitals make medical history with transplant
Two Birmingham hospitals have made medical history by carrying out the UK’s first successful domino transplant – where organs are transferred between donors.
Surgeons from Birmingham Children’s Hospital and University Hospital carried out five transplants on two adults and three children in a 24-hour period, using organs from two donors.
A domino transplant is extremely rare, only 29 such liver transplants have happened in the UK, and involves the removal of an organ from a dead donor and transplantation into a patient, who in turn donates an organ to a second person.
The youngest of the five patients was eight-month-old Lubaya Turpin from Wylde Green.
The youngster was born with a rare liver condition and had undergone an unsuccessful operation at nine weeks old. In June, she received the left part of the original donor’s liver.
Father Dwayne Turpin said: “She’s been like a different baby.”
“We noticed improvements in just a couple of days. Her eyes used to be yellow, now that’s all cleared up and they are bright white again. She has a lot more energy, whereas before she would be sluggish. She’s been a very lucky baby.”
