5-organ transplant patient gives birth to baby girl

A woman who was given a new liver, pancreas, stomach and small and large intestine at a Miami hospital in 2007 has delivered a healthy baby girl, believed to be the first known case of a five-organ transplant patient giving birth.

Fatema Al Ansari, 26, said Wednesday she was overjoyed after giving birth by cesarean section February 26. She held the sleeping child at a gathering with reporters Wednesday at the same hospital, Jackson Memorial, where she had transplant surgery in 2007.

"It's a hard feeling to express,'' the smiling mother said, gently cradling her daughter Alkadi Alhayal, who had weighed 4 pounds 7 ounces upon arrival. "It's the best feeling in the world,'' she said in Arabic, her words translated by an interpreter.

Snuggled in a white blanket and white cap, the child slept quietly in her mother's arms while her parents addressed reporters' questions with her doctors.

The woman, who lives in Qatar and plans to return home in coming weeks, was there at 19 when she was diagnosed with a blood clot in a major vein to the intestine – requiring transplant surgery.

Just over 600 five-organ transplants have been recorded as of 2011, according to the latest figures available from the Intestinal Transplant Association.

The most recent annual report by the National Transplantation Pregnancy Registry also indicates she is the first reported case of a five-organ transplant patient in the world to give birth.

Dr. Shalih Y. Yasin, the woman's obstetrician, said there have been some cases in Europe of births by transplant patients who had two organs "but not five.''

"We have searched all medical literature all over the world for any pregnancy that had five multi-transplants and this is the first case to our knowledge,'' said the doctor with the University of Miami Health System.

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