The National Team on Liver Transplants at the State First Clinical Hospital successfully performed a liver transplant on a four-year old boy along with a medical specialist team from Korea’s Asan Medical Center on Saturday February 22nd.

The National Team on Liver Transplants at the State First Clinic Hospital and the Korea’s Asan Medical Center  medical specialists have completed a total of 12 liver transplants since they first  performed it in Mongolia in 2011. The 13th surgery was performed on this four-year old boy who was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a disease present from birth.

According to the head of the National Team on Liver Transplants, O.Sergelen, the child’s donor was his mother. The surgery continued for over 10 hours. Now the boy and his mother are in stable conditions. He also commented that there are 23 children on the waiting list to have the liver transplant in Mongolia.

The National Team on Liver Transplants plan to conduct the next liver transplant to an adult in April and a child in September. It is still too early to say how much exactly was spent for the liver transplant surgery on the child before the account is totalled but it is expected to be approximately 50 million MNT.

The National Team on Liver Transplants at the State First Clinical Hospital conducted all preparation to perform the liver transplant on its own this year.  Dr. Sung-Gyu Lee, chief of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation at the Asan Medical Center (AMC) of Korea, played a special role in teaching about liver transplantation to Mongolian medical specialists doing training in South Korea and with financial support to improve surgery facilities. Dr. Sung-Gyu Lee comes to Mongolia every two years to assist the National Team on Liver Transplants.

The State First Clinical Hospital awarded Dr. Sung-Gyu Lee for his efforts in Mongolia on Sunday with an honored professor title.

Dr. Sung-Gyu Lee said that:

“When I first arrived at the State First Clinic Hospital in 2010, there was not enough facilities to conduct liver transplant surgery and medical specialists were not qualified enough to perform the surgery. But the skills of medical specialists are more qualified and the surgical facilities are improving year by year.  Since the first successful surgery, 13 liver transplantations have been performed. It shows improvement. The most important thing is all those patients who had the liver transplantation are safe and sound now. That is our success.”