Seven-organ transplant gives 7-year-old new life

By Kim Rahn

For seven-year-old Cho Eun-seo, simply eating food had been a dream until a few months ago.

The dream for Cho, who had suffered from a rare disease affecting digestion, finally came true after she had seven internal organs transplanted at one time in October.

Cho had chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction syndrome since birth. As her intestines barely moved, they didn’t absorb nutrition and she threw up food when she ate. She could only receive nutrients through injections.

It is a very rare disease, with only some 10 people in the country with it and organ transplants are the only known cure.

Cho had been in for other surgeries since she was born prematurely in 2005. She underwent stomach and colon operations but the organs didn’t regain their functions. The condition of her liver had also deteriorated from two years ago.

After two years of waiting, she found a donor, a brain dead child of a similar age to Cho.

On Oct. 12, surgeon Kim Dae-yeon at Asan Medical Center conducted the nine-hour operation, transplanting the liver, small intestine, bowel, stomach, pancreas, duodenum and spleen.

“Organ transplants on children are very difficult and have a lower chance of success than those on adults because the organs are smaller. In Cho’s case, the donor’s organs were suitable in many ways,” Kim said.

It is the first time in South Korea that seven organs have been transplanted simultaneously, doctors said.

The girl could breathe on her own without a respirator four days after the operation. After a month, she could eat. She was recently transferred to an ordinary ward from an intensive care unit.

“She now eats. It is like a dream,” Cho’s mother, Kim Young-ah, said. “Now she says she would like to eat hamburgers as often as she wants just like her friends.”