Youngest liver transplant patient

Baebhen Schuttke, (b. Dublin 1997) who collapsed with liver failure 24 hours after she was born, was flown to King's College Hospital, London, where the liver of a 10-year-old child was available for transplant. The procedure took place when she was five days old. The delicate seven hour operation, led by surgeon Mohammed Rela, involved transplanting a single lobe from the donor liver, 1/8 of the livers total size, when she was just five days old. For two weeks the surgical wound was left open, covered by a dressing, until the liver had shrunk to fit.
Surgeons at Kings have performed 13 liver transplants on children below the age of three months and five below one month. The hospital is the largest liver transplant centre in Europe, carrying out more than 180 transplants a year.