"A Strong Sibling Bond Grows Closer With Live Organ Transplant" - Cathy Free
After donating about 30 percent of his liver to his sister this summer, Ed Henry is amazed at what happened next.
Not only is his sister on the road to a normal life, but almost all of his liver grew back in less than six weeks. “The fact that your liver can regenerate itself is incredible — it’s a medical miracle,” said Ed. Colleen Henry, 46, is doing well despite a longer recovery period as a donor recipient. For more than a decade, she struggled with a rare hereditary condition called primary biliary cholangitis, an autoimmune liver disease that destroys the bile ducts and can lead to scarring of the liver. “Thanks to her brother’s donation, she should be able to live a normal, healthy life,” said Sander Florman, MD, professor of surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and director of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute at Mount Sinai. He added, “At this point, it’s safe to say that Colleen will die of something else like the rest of us, not liver disease.”
— Sander Florman, MD, Director, The Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute at Mount Sinai, Professor, Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
