Donor grandma meets small patient

LOS ANGELES — Ten-month-old Alondra Martinez was showing signs of end-stage liver disease and needed a transplant fast. Family members tried in vain to give up parts of their organs to save her but were incompatible.

So Alondra waited on the transplant list for six months until she received a gift from a stranger.

Katie Hale, a 50-year-old mother from St. George, Utah, signed up two years ago to be a liver donor after researching online about how the organ can grow back. On March 25, she underwent a four-hour operation at USC University Hospital where doctors harvested one-fifth of her liver and transplanted it into Alondra.

Hale met Alondra for the first time this past week at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles where the transplant took place. Hale wiped away tears as Alondra's mother, Evangelina, appeared with the baby, who was outfitted in a pink dress and matching bonnet. The women embraced as Hale handed a white teddy bear to Alondra.

"It's probably the best feeling I've ever had seeing this little baby," Hale said.

Evangelina Martinez, of Huntington Park, said she was shocked when doctors told her they found a live liver donor match.

"It's a miracle," said Martinez, her eyes brimming with tears. "I'll be thankful all my life for my daughter."

More than 87,000 people are on the nation's organ transplant waiting list and about 700 of them are 5 years old or younger, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Dr. Dan Thomas, medical director of the transplant program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, said live liver donations are critical. Without them, "we have children who won't make it," Thomas said.

Shortly after Alondra was born, her parents noticed that she seemed jaundiced. After developing a hernia, Alondra's pediatrician referred her to Children's Hospital Los Angeles where she was diagnosed with bilary atresia, a disease in which the ducts carrying bile from the liver to the intestine are blocked.

Last summer, Alondra underwent a procedure to connect the intestine directly into the liver, providing a corridor for bile into the intestine. But Alondra still needed a transplant to survive.

Hale, who has three grown children and three grandchildren, including two who are the same age as Alondra, said she now feels a special connection to the child.

"We'll always keep in touch," Hale said.

Hale continues to feel some discomfort in her side after the surgery, but doctors expect her liver to regenerate in six to 12 weeks. Alondra has to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of her life, but doctors said her outlook was positive.