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4-year-old Jamie's transplant scheduled for today
WARREN
Jamie, 4, of Trumbull County was scheduled to undergo a potentially life-saving liver transplant today at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
A plea issued several weeks ago by Trumbull County Children Services, which has custody of Jamie, for a donor resulted in hundreds of concerned area residents signing up to be tested, including today’s donor, David Denovchek of Niles.
Jamie, born with a condition that causes bile to remain in her liver, has been in the hospital since January.
She and Denovchek were scheduled to be prepped for surgery early today. Denovchek’s surgery will be performed first, said Marilyn Pape, TCCS’ department manager for foster care and adoption.
Pape, who said the surgery could be delayed by unforeseen events, said Tuesday afternoon that Jamie remained very ill but in stable condition, but was not in the hospital’s intensive-care unit.
According to the American Liver Foundation, liver- transplant surgery usually takes between four and 12 hours, and most patients stay in the hospital for up to three weeks after surgery; and donated livers come from living and nonliving donors whose blood type and body size match the person receiving the transplant.
In Jamie’s case, her living donor, Denovchek, donated a part of his liver.
The donated and the remaining part of the donor’s liver will grow in weeks to the size the body needs.