The same liver that’s helping restore the health of rock and roll legend Bobby Rydell is also giving a little girl her first chance at a normal childhood.
Born in Philadelphia in May 2008, Assiah Phinisee spent the first four years of her life battling biliary atresia – a blockage of the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder and intestines. By the time Assiah’s mother, Rasheena, visited Stephen P. Dunn, MD, Chair of the Department of Surgery at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and Professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College, in 2010, Assiah had undergone numerous surgeries and spent hundreds of days in the hospital.
At another area hospital in 2009, Assiah received her first transplant, a full liver from a toddler donor. Despite initial positive signs, that transplant ultimately failed. The team at duPont – with whom Jefferson partners to provide pediatric transplants – re-listed Assiah on the transplant waiting list in March 2011.
After waiting nearly a year and a half, Rasheena got the news that Assiah would receive a partial liver transplant in July. Since then, Rasheena says her daughter has never been healthier.
Read the full story at: www.jeffersonhospital.org/assiah
Recommended Citation
(2012)
"Philly Preschooler Shares Liver with Rock and Roll Legend,"
Jefferson Surgical Solutions: Vol. 7:
Iss.
2, Article 2.
Available at:
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/jss/vol7/iss2/2