A mother and her daughter are the faces of the first living-donor liver transplant among adults to be performed in Costa Rica, reported the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS). JeannetLoría is the mother who received part of the organ from her daughter Bianca Oviedo. Last Friday, the CCSS celebrated the success of the surgery, which was performed on April 11th, 2023.
“I want to invite people to donate, we are a living example of what the Calderón Guardia staff is capable of”, expressed Loría. “If you knew what an excellent mother she is, you would see how easy it was to get rid of a part of me to have more time with us”, Oviedo said through tears.
At the end of the first month of the surgery, both are in good health; of course, they keep on following protocols and medical checkups. The survival of patients after 1 year of transplantation, at Hospital Calderón Guardia, is 85%; and mortality, 30 days later, is 8%.
About the surgery
According to the authorities, the surgery took more than 19 hours and 42 people participated, all of them trained in South Korea, specifically at the Asam Medical Center hospital. “This procedure is a milestone in medicine in our country. We are going to continue developing it for the patients who need it”, commented TacianoLemos, director of the HCG.
According to Vanessa López, a specialist doctor, this operation is highly complex, since it is carried out in 2 surgery rooms at the same time. “Removing a portion of the donor’s liver can take approximately 8 hours. All provisions must be made so that the extracted piece remains viable and then be placed”, he indicated. “Meanwhile, after extracting the liver from the recipient patient, the cavity is carefully prepared, making it ready to receive the new organ”, explained the specialist.
Once the transplant begins, the vascular, biliary, arterial, and vein endings must be connected using specialized equipment and highly complex surgery. This is done so that the liver can properly irrigate the blood. In addition, the liver has the ability to grow or regenerate again after being transplanted.
These types of procedures are not alien to Costa Rica. In fact, in 1999 a pediatric living donor liver transplant was performed at the National Children’s Hospital. It was performed with the support of surgeons from Kyoto University, in Japan.
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