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NEWS UPDATEA Resurrected Liver; A Resurrected LifeMost transplant patients must spend the rest of their lives taking immunosuppressant drugs to keep their bodies from rejecting the new organ. But physicians at the University of Virginia Health System are purposely helping one eight-year-old boy reject the transplanted liver that saved his life.He simply doesn't need it anymore. When Nicholas Ribble of Winchester, Va., was brought to U.Va. last summer in liver failure, a transplant was his only hope (see attached press release). A compatible donor organ became available, but because Nicholas' liver showed some evidence that it was trying to regenerate, surgeons put the donor liver next to — not in place of — his natural liver. Their hope was that the donor organ would serve as a backup generator until his own liver could resume normal functioning. If this happened, Nicholas would be spared a lifelong dependency on immunosuppressant drugs. Recent tests have determined that Nicholas' natural liver has indeed resumed normal functioning. His physicians are gradually withdrawing him from the immunosuppressant drugs, which will cause his body to reject the transplanted liver. This is the best possible outcome, said Dr. Timothy Pruett, professor of surgery and chief of the Transplantation Division for U.Va.'s Charles O. Strickler Transplant Center. We're thrilled that Nicholas can have a normal life. He won't have to take daily immunosuppressant drugs, a regimen that can be difficult for children, especially during the teenage years. We will continue to follow him closely for the next few years to be assured that all is going is well as it appears to be. The Ribble family considers the outcome nothing short of a miracle. We're just so thankful that everything turned out the way it did, said Tom Ribble, Nicholas' father. He's as good as new. For more information, call Dr. Timothy Pruett, professor of surgery and chief of the Transplantation Division for U.Va.'s Charles O. Strickler Transplant Center, at (804) 924-9462. March 16, 1999 JUMP TO ORGINAL RELEASE: |