Boy who received liver, kidney transplants from parents returns to school

Taipei, April 15 (CNA) A boy who received a partial liver transplant from his mother and a kidney transplant from his father within a year has returned to school, National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) said Wednesday.

The boy, surnamed Hsu (許), who turns 12 this year, was diagnosed in infancy with the rare Caroli disease, complicated by hepatic fibrosis and splenomegaly, as well as autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD), the hospital said in a statement.

He was just 4 months old when he was transferred to NTUH in cardiogenic shock, said Tsai I-jung (蔡宜蓉), head of the hospital's Division of Pediatric Nephrology, at a news briefing.

His condition later progressed to end-stage kidney disease, making treatment highly complex, Tsai said.

Hsu underwent a partial liver transplant in January 2025, with his mother as the donor. However, his kidney function deteriorated rapidly after the procedure, leading to a living donor kidney transplant from his father in January 2026, said Lee Chih-yuan (李志元), an attending physician in the hospital's Department of Surgery.

Following the successive transplants, Hsu has returned to school and will continue to recover well, provided he keeps taking anti-rejection medication, Lee said.

Lee said undergoing two organ transplants within such a short period is rare, even among adult patients, adding that Hsu was the hospital's first pediatric case of its kind.

Hsu's mother said the couple had long prepared for the possibility of organ donation, maintaining their health over the past decade to meet eligibility requirements.

NTUH said the case highlights the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, from preoperative assessment and surgery to postoperative care, involving specialists in pediatrics, transplant surgery, nephrology, anesthesiology and nursing.

The hospital added that it performed Asia's first living donor kidney transplant in 1968 and has since completed more than 1,500 such procedures, the highest number in Taiwan.

According to Ministry of Health and Welfare data, NTUH reports a 10-year post-transplant survival rate of 85 percent for kidney recipients, higher than the national average of 77 percent.

The hospital also called on the public to support organ donation.