The first case of organ exchange in the world

Everything started from the situation of mother and daughter Erosalyn Deveza and Aliana Deveza in Santa Cruz, California. The mother, Erosalyn, had chronic kidney failure and had frequent dialysis. Seeing his mother hurt every time she ran dialysis, her daughter Aliana was heartbroken and wanted to give her mother a kidney. However, when tested, doctors said her kidney was not suitable for the mother.

The mother is then placed on the waiting list for kidney transplantation. And everyone knows, the internal organs are not an available item; if there are no relatives or friends donating, only expect someone to die or die, but there must be similarity. prefer.

So Aliana Deveza has 'developed' a plan. In 2017, she went online to call around the world to exchange different parts between living donors.

She offered to exchange half of her liver for someone else to receive a kidney. So the online community is buzzing because this is a suggestion that is not unreasonable. And many surgeons also support this.

Aliana did not expect that her proposal had such an enormous impact. Because if the community organizes compatible people together, there will be a compatible source of organs available. However, when proposing this idea to hospitals, Aliana got the answer that they didn't know what she wanted to talk about and showed her to the morgue!

There is a fact that people can use the liver in exchange to receive other organs, because the liver is one of the very few organs that have regenerative features. And after only a period of time, the donor's liver and the recipient have grown to full size. In addition, humans can donate up to 60% of their liver.

Finally, Aliana got in touch with BS. John Roberts of the University of San Francisco, California, who saw the potential of the idea and she was judged to be healthy enough to donate part of the liver. It took 18 months for her to find Annie Simmons in Boise, Idaho, wanting to donate her liver to a seriously ill sister but her liver was not compatible.

From left to right: liver recipients Connie Saragoza de Salinas, liver donor Aliana Deveza, surgeon Nancy Ascher and John Roberts, kidney donor Annie Simmons and kidney recipient Erosalyn Deveza.

So Aliana and BS. John Roberts outlined a plan: Annie Simmons will donate a kidney to Aliana's mother, and in return, Aliana will give half of her liver to her sister Annie. And this plan was accepted by the hospital's leadership and experts in charge of ethics.

However, there are also some opinions that this is an unequal transaction. Because in theory, a liver is more valuable than a kidney, because people with kidney failure can survive years of dialysis, but not with the liver. In addition, liver donors also experience a higher complication rate.

At the hospital, the board of directors gave priority and four surgeries were performed on the same day. As for Aliana, in the next weeks she felt powerless and extremely tired, which she was warned would happen when her body poured all her energy into the recovery of the liver, she said, the same condition. just like when flying in bad weather.

But two months later, the ultrasound showed her liver almost returned to normal. According to BS. John Roberts, the liver can begin to regenerate in just a few hours after a partial cut and hopes that this exchange will inspire even more people.

With these exchanges the couple will be able to allow up to thirty more donor liver transplants every year in the United States, an increase of ten percent.

When interviewed by the press, Aliana said she only wanted to do something for her mother, but unexpectedly received more joy to help others.