A Chinese woman who had liver transplant surgery two years ago
has given birth to a baby in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.
29-year-old Feng Jie became a very happy and lucky mum on Sunday
when she gave birth to a healthy boy, making her China's fourth and
the world's 40th liver-transplant woman to successfully produce a
baby.
The baby, weighing 4.41 kilograms, was born by Cesarean section
on Sunday morning in the No. 1 Hospital affiliated to Chongqing
Medical University.
The mother and her baby are in a stable condition, said Doctor
Du Chengyou.
Feng received a liver transplant in 2004, after being diagnosed
in 2001 with Wilson's disease, a major liver disease which leads to
hepatic failure, liver cirrhosis and ultimately death. The
pregnancies of liver-transplant patients threaten the lives of
mother and baby and usually lead to infant deformation and
obstetric disease.
Feng got pregnant in April 2006 and life smiled on this
resilient and gutsy woman who insisted on becoming a mother.
China's first baby born to a liver-transplant patient came into
the world on Aug. 18, 2004 in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Liver transplants are considered the most difficult of all organ
transplants. Since the first operation was conducted in the United
States in 1963, 100,000 patients have undergone the surgery around
the world, including about 5,000 Chinese patients.
(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2006)