The Community Physician and Liver Transplantation
1 Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center, Minneapolis
2 Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center, Minneapolis
Jamie Fiske is a child who underwent a successful liver transplant for extrahepatic biliary atresia at the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center. Nationwide publicity resulted when the father received permission to address the American Academy of Pediatrics with regard to a donor liver for his daughter. The parents of the child who donated the liver were aware of this dramatic form of public appeal. It is extremely unlikely that the liver transplantation in this case would have occurred without media involvement. Also unlikely is that two commentaries on this subject (Starzl et al1 and this paper) would have been sought by Pediatrics without the publicity surrounding this case.




