A 4-year-old British girl who received a liver and intestinal transplant 9 days ago at Children's Hospital was in critical condition Friday after four hours of exploratory surgery, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Laura Davies, of Manchester, England, emerged from surgery at 5 p.m. Thursday and was in the pediatric intensive care unit, spokeswoman Lynn McMahon said.The surgery became necessary when Laura's doctors suspected her recently transplanted liver may not have been functioning properly.
Surgeons discovered a small leak that was causing bleeding from the site into her abdomen, McMahon said. Surgeons repaired the leak and stopped the bleeding and felt confident the surgery would restore Laura's liver to proper functioning, McMahon said.
Doctors considered it a minor setback and were cautiously optimistic about Laura's recovery, McMahon said.
Laura's blood levels had been abnormal prior to the exploratory surgery, which began about 1 p.m.
Laura received the new liver and small intestine during almost 16 hours of surgery June 10. Less than 12 hours after the operation, she was weaned from the respirator that helped her breathe.
Laura was born with an improperly formed small bowel and surgery to lenghten the organ was not successful. She had been kept alive by intravenous feeding, but the procedure was destroying her liver.
Laura arrived in Pittsburgh May 30 to be evaluated and transplant surgeons determined she was in immediate need of the operation.
Transplant surgeons in Pittsburgh had suggested Laura would have a better chance of receiving the transplant at Cambridge University in her native England, but her parents, Fran and Leslie Davies, said they did not want her to be the first person to undergo the transplant in England.