Doctors at Intermountain Medical Center Transplant Part of Daughter's Liver Into Dying Mom

Living liver transplants are an extremely challenging and complex surgery to perform. The Intermountain Medical Center Transplant Program is the only transplant program in Utah – and anywhere in the Intermountain West — that is performing adult-to-adult living donor liver transplants. There are only a handful of programs available in the country performing these complex transplants. 

Mom and daughter, along with members of the Intermountain Medical Center Transplant team, spoke about the procedure, and the hospital's plans to perform many more of the life-saving transplants for many Utahns who could benefit from living liver donor transplants. Several other potential donors are currently being evaluated at the hospital. 

Betty Garcia’s liver function was steadily declining over the past decade and her health had become increasingly worse the last few years. She was constantly tired and it was difficult for her to even speak. She would come home from work and immediately have to go to bed. She would spend every weekend sleeping and trying to store up enough energy to face another week. 

She was in desperate need of a liver transplant. Unfortunately, she still wasn’t quite sick enough to qualify for a liver from a deceased donor. 

Garcia’s daughter Rachel Garcia-Trujillo wanted to help. As her only child, the two were very close. When she heard that she might be able to donate a portion of her own liver to save her mother’s life, she immediately volunteered. After undergoing all the necessary testing to make sure she was a good candidate to donate, the surgery was performed on November 11 — Veteran’s Day — very fitting since Garcia-Trujillo is an army veteran. 

“They told me that the surgery was risky, but I just tried not to think about the risk,” Garcia-Trujillo said. “She is my mother and I wanted to help her. I just told them to hurry up and get it over with.” 

Garcia-Trujillo says her husband was hesitant to let her go through with surgery, especially after learning that 30 percent of donors have some form of complication, but he has supported her every step of the way. Her seven-year-old daughter was excited to hear what her mom would heroically be doing to help save grandma's life. 

Surgeons from the Intermountain Medical Center Transplant Program took about 60 percent of Garcia-Trujillo’s liver and implanted it into her mother. Both pieces will regenerate into full functioning livers in time. 

The surgery put Garcia-Trujillo into liver failure. She spent about four days in the intensive care unit and then another ten days recovering in the hospital before going home. Now a month later she is finally able to walk around and is get out of the house for brief periods of time. She is still unable to lift much and has very little energy. 

“It’s a lot of work to grow a new liver,” she says with a smile. 

Garcia started improving immediately after receiving her new liver and has made steady progress. Her color has improved and she is able to talk much more freely. Even though she still tires easily, she already has much more energy then before the surgery. 

Garcia-Trujillo went through a lot to save her mother, but she says she doesn’t regret anything. “I would do it all over again in a heart beat,” she said. "My mom is alive and well."

Facts about adult-to-adult living liver transplant:

• With a living liver donor transplant, surgeons will remove a portion of a donor's liver. Then, the surgical team removes the recipient's entire diseased liver and replaces it with the portion of the living donor's liver. Both the donor’s and the recipients’ livers will grow back to their full size with time. 
• Adult to child liver donation is fairly common, partly because only a small part of the donor’s liver is taken. But with adult-to-adult transplant, about 60 percent of the donor’s liver is taken. 
• When donor liver is surgically removed, hundreds of tiny blood vessels and bile ducts must be cauterized or stitched shut. If any are missed, there is a high risk of internal bleeding, infection, and other problems. 
• This is a very risky procedure, with about 30 percent of donors suffering some sort of complication. 
• In order to remove the liver, a large incision is made all the way across the front of the donor along the bottom of the rib cage. 
• In order to be a living liver donor, you must be between 21 and 55 and completely healthy. Donors must also have a body mass index of less than 30, and they must be the same blood type as the recipient. 
• The donor will go from being perfectly healthy to being in liver failure. Following the surgery they’ll spend three to four days in the intensive care unit and then another week or more in the hospital before going home. 
• It usually takes two or three months for a donor’s liver function to be near normal again. Often donors are unable to return to work for three to six months.
• When healing, both the donor and the recipient have to be very careful about their position when lying down for the first three weeks because the liver could shift before it is fully regrown. The donor can’t lie on their right side and the recipient can’t lie on their left. 
• This is one of the most technically challenging surgeries currently being performed.

Why is living organ donation better than cadaveric donation?

• Shorter waiting time for recipient: In Utah, patients must to be very near death before they can receive a liver from a deceased donor. With a living donor, the surgery is scheduled as soon as the recipient and donor complete their testing. 
• Shorter waiting list for everyone else: The use of living donors reduces the number of people on the deceased donor list who may not have a living donor available to them. Transplant success rates are greater with living donors. The patients most likely to benefit from a living donor liver transplant are those who are sicker, with symptoms of liver failure but whose MELD scores (measurement of sickness) do not favor them to receive a transplant in a timely manner.

Intermountain Medical Center is the only hospital in the Intermountain West performing adult-to-adult living donor liver transplants. There are only a handful of programs available in the country. This is the first living donor liver transplant performed at Intermountain Medical Center since 2008, but with the addition of specialized surgeons and the growing need for liver transplant, the hospital anticipates doing approximately three to five living liver transplants per year moving forward. Several potential donors are currently being evaluated.

How you can become a donor:

Those who may be interested in becoming a living liver donor can call the transplant center at (801) 507-3380. To become a kidney donor, fill out the online screening form. Everyone is encouraged to register as an organ donor when renewing a driver’s license, or at www.yesutah.org​. Even the elderly and those with chronic conditions are encouraged to sign up.