TAMPA, Fla. — Doctors at Tampa General Hospital completed their first living donor liver transplant, the hospital announced Tuesday.
The surgery is something only a few hospitals across the United States can do — and now, Tampa General Hospital is the first to complete the transplant on Florida's West Coast.
The procedure allows doctors to use part of a liver from a living person to help people with end-stage liver disease and liver cancer. Before, doctors only used livers from donors who died.
What makes this successful living donor liver transplant even sweeter is that their first patients were a mother and son, Patricia and Derek Sanz. Doctors said their livers will grow back to their normal size in a matter of weeks.
Nearly 18,000 people are on a waiting list for liver transplants. Tampa General Hospital said this program will allow them to cut down the time they have to wait for a transplant.
The hospital says there are many benefits of living donor transplantation. The procedure decreases time spent on the wait list for patients, flexible scheduling to complete surgery and improved long-term outcomes and faster recovery time for patients.