Ancona – The story of Silvia it starts very far away, in 2006when she is diagnosed with one very serious stomach disease.
After surgery and the necessary therapies, during routine checks, the specialists of Salesi – where the then little patient was being treated – they discover that the liver presents some major injuries. The oncologists of Salesi they try to control the disease but it progresses inexorably.
In November 2014, the patient, of Staffolo and now residing in Jesicarry out a CT scan follow up demonstrating further progression of the disease.
Silvia is tired because the disease causes severe nausea, vomiting and severe pain in her upper abdomen. Medicines are no longer enough to calm the pain. In this phase, given the failure of all the drugs, the doctors Salesi report the patient to the director of Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic and Transplant Surgery in Torrette, prof. Marco Vivarelli and his team.
After a multidisciplinary evaluation, prof. Marco Vivarelli proposes a surgery which aims to reduce pain by removing the largest metastasis and the lymph nodes in the stomach.
The goal is to leave the disease alone within the liver, improve his quality of life and bring it, if possible, to liver transplantation.
The operation was carried out at the beginning of December 2014, the metastasis as well as the stomach lymph nodes were removed. Taking into account her young age, the disease now confined only to the liver and the long interval of time, approximately 9 years, between the first unfortunate diagnosis and the described surgical intervention, the patient was placed in liver transplant waiting list.
Two months later, in January 2015, prof. Marco Vivarelli and his team they successfully perform the transplant. It’s about the first transplant in the world for liver metastases, caused by the disease that affected Silvia and which arose in childhood. The event has such international importance that prof. Vivarelli and his teamafter 4 years of follow uppublish the clinical case in a prestigious scientific journal, theAmerican Journal of Transplantation.
To date, almost 18 years after the initial diagnosis and 9 years after the liver transplant, the young patient, now grown up, 35 years old, is in excellent healthAnd tied the knot and most importantly, it is completely free from disease.
Silvia says: «Without that donation I am today I couldn’t be here with you. From that day my real life began: the only life I know.”
The beauty of Silvia’s smile and words lead us to reflect on the high value of altruism and therefore, each of us is called to do our part.
Tags: story Silva liver transplant day real life began
