Just two weeks ago, doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital did not know if Hannah Swift would live through the night. The 11-year-old’s liver was failing, and she needed a new one immediately.
Doctors did not know why her liver failed, but they quickly placed her on a transplant list and tested family members to see if any were a match to be a living donor. Her father was, but preparing him for the surgery would take too long and Hannah was dying.
Then a liver became available from someone who had died, but there was a problem: The donor’s blood type was incompatible with Hannah’s body.
The West Barnstable fifth-grader did not have long, so on Jan. 31 doctors rushed her into surgery, performing an extremely rare ABO incompatible liver transplant, something done in less than 1 percent of all liver transplants performed with organs from deceased donors nationwide since 2007.
