Word: atresia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Alyssa was born with biliary atresia, a condition that leads to liver failure. When a national waiting list produced no suitable donors, doctors asked if one of her parents would become America's first living liver donor. A healthy person can lose up to 75% of a liver and survive: within weeks the organ will fully regenerate. Both were willing; Teresa's liver proved more compatible. In a 14-hour procedure in November 1989, surgeons at the University of Chicago Medical Center removed the left lobe of Teresa's liver, trimmed it down, then transplanted it into Alyssa. During...