An Iowa infant aged 7 months was the first recipient of a bloodless liver transplant in Los Angeles, the United States of America. The seven month old, Aiden Michael Rush, whose parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses are prohibited by their religion to receive transfusions.
The boy received 20% of his mother’s liver during the transplantation on February 7th at the children’s hospital in Los Angeles.To avoid complications during the surgery doctors recycled the blood lost from the infant’s body back to his circulation. Also the infant was given drugs to stimulate the production of red blood cells. Recycling ones own blood is permissible amongst the Witnesses. The surgery is the first of its kind in an infant but with the successful result obtained many more similar procedures will follow suit.
