Ground-Breaking Liver Transplant

A Revolutionary Technique And A Courageous Donor Were Oumayma's Only Hope

Sabine Darrous

Daily Star staff

When Oumayma Khalil arrived at Hotel Dieu de France hospital two months ago, she had hepatitis C and just a few days to live.

Little did she know that her only brother would risk his life to save hers in the first liver transplant from a living person performed in the Middle East.

Her brother, Ghazi, allowed doctors to cut his liver in half in the hope that it would save her. It did.

"We either die together or live together. That was my decision after I learned about my sister's disease and her serious condition," Ghazi told a news conference at Hotel Dieu hospital in Achrafieh on Monday.

Also at the conference were Oumayma, the doctors who conducted the operation and hospital officials.

What was special about the operation, conducted mid-May, was that, for the first time, the organ had been taken from a live donor.

Oumayma, 22, works a nurse at the military hospital in Mathaf. The army covered the cost of the operation: $70,000.

Oumayma was taken to Hotel Dieu on May 10 with severe liver inflammation and needed an immediate transplant.

"In these cases, the patient has an 80-95 percent risk of dying as a result of the collapse of the nervous system. The only treatment is an urgent liver transplant operation," said Joseph Outayek, director of Hotel Dieu.

The hospital scoured the country in search of an organ donated by someone recently deceased, but to no avail, Outayek said.

In the absence of a clinically dead donor whose family agrees to donate his liver, we had only one choice "the transplant of a liver from a young, living donor," Outayek said.

The operation is new: it was first developed in Japan, introduced in France two years ago and is now being studied in the United States.

The 12-hour operation is much more dangerous than transferring a liver from a dead donor because the donor and the receiver each have to survive with half a liver. But waiting for a donor can be torture for people with kidney problems, and, as in Oumayma's case, can mean life or death.

When the Khalil family were told about their daughter;s condition, Ghazi, 25, the only brother among seven siblings, presented himself as a prospective donor.

"He didn't hesitate," said Outayek. "He was scared in the beginning, but only for a bit because of his love for his sister and his faith in God."

Dr. Jacques Belghitti and his assistant, Dr. Alain Sauvannet from Beaujon Hospital in Paris flew to Lebanon to dissect Ghazi's liver, a sensitive operation, because the rest of the liver and the area surrounding it must remain intact. The actual transplant was carried out by Dr. Roger Noun of Hotel Dieu.

The removal and transplant operations were performed simultaneously in two rooms.

Outayek said that both Oumayma and Ghazi experienced some expected complications after the operation but were treated carefully and recovered well.

Ghazi's liver has regrown to its original shape and size, while doctors have reported that Oumayma's half is also back to its original shape and is gradually developing and in good shape for her to lead a normal life. They have both been released from the hospital.

"In previous days, patients suffering from liver inflammation die within days but now as a result of the French-Lebanese cooperation ... a new light of hope is born for these patients," Outayek said.

Oumayma did not talk about her experience but thanked the army for covering the cost of the operation. She said that she felt well now and was not suffering from any pain, "as if I didn't even undergo an operation."

Brigadier Salim Zebian, head of the military medical services, said that army Commander General Michel Suleiman had personally approved the operation and said to go ahead with it no matter what the cost.

Copyright © 2000 The Daily Star.

This article posted July 8, 2000.