A woman gave her nine-month-old daughter a second chance at life by donating part of her liver last weekend in Shanghai.

Surgeons said the baby, the youngest ever to receive a liver transplant in China, is still in critical condition but the mother is recovering well.

The infant, named Yangyang, is the younger of twin girls born in Shanghai. She suffers from biliary atresia, a congenital ailment caused by the abnormal development of the bile ducts inside or outside the liver. The baby's condition recently worsened, leaving the transplant procedure as the only option for saving her life.

The procedure was conducted jointly by surgeons of Zhongshan Hospital and Children's Hospital of Fudan University, neighboring facilities that have previously performed five such operations on children.

Beginning at 8:30 PM on Saturday, a team led by Fan Jia removed a quarter of the mother's healthy liver at Zhongshan Hospital. Meanwhile, the team working at Children's Hospital removed the malfunctioning organ from the infant.

At 2:00 AM Sunday, the two groups of surgeons came together to transplant the mother's liver into the baby's body.

Seven surgeons carefully connected the tiny arteries, veins and bile duct of the baby to the donated liver.

"All this was done under magnification and quickly, because the diameter of the vessels was only 0.3 millimeter," said Dr. Fan.

Shortly after the procedure was completed, Yangyang showed signs of internal bleeding. She was rushed back to the operating room to repair the damaged area.

At around 6:00 PM, the procedure was complete.

"Close-relative organ donation may solve the worldwide problem of organ shortage, and this is especially important for China where hepatitis and liver diseases are prevalent," Fan said.

Although more than 1 million Chinese patients suffer from serious liver disease, only about 5,000 transplants are performed each year and more patients die waiting for a matching organ.

(China Daily, China.org.cn January 11, 2005)