SAVING A BABY'S LIFE #WhatADay | Ep. 3

we're going out on a very very special Mission they say that the feeling that they had after they were finished is just the best feeling in the world that they save another person's life I think that if he did not have a transplant today he would only have days to week to live they said no the situation turned it became an emergency and they want to go ahead and schedule it right away so here we are [Music] good morning it is 5:30 a.m. we're going out on a very very special Mission I guess I'm sitting up front hello good morning how are you what are we doing today we're having a liver transplant for a baby today what wow what is a liver transplant can you actually give up your liver well you can give away a part of your liver depending on um on the case how much they need give up up to I think up to 70% of your liver to another person so you actually cut off a piece and give it to someone yeah and it completely grows back it regenerates it's the only organ in the body that regrows so when did you get involved in liver transplant when did you figure out that there is such a thing that you could actually give a liver so I was just involved in a couple of cases over the years that I witnessed that people who they had liver disease and they got transplanted and they're totally fine today wow um does it save lives totally of course what happens to someone who doesn't get a transplant one in five people who are sitting and waiting for a transplant die wow yeah so it is very important yes the waiting the waiting period is the worst the are approximately in the United States 10,000 people that are waiting on a list trying to get a liver transplant wow so you found a way to speed up the process you're saying so what we do is if there's aish person that's looking for a match we try to to help them find the match by reaching out to the him Community you know people should get tested and to hopefully find them a donor as soon as you have your own database yeah so we have a couple of different ways that we try to reach people which between calling and texting and WhatsApp and those type of uh communication wow who who is the patient today patient today is a 12 week old baby 12 week old baby yeah oh wow is it not dangerous like you're putting in a liver that's bigger than him or the liver is not too big well for a baby they take out a little less they don't have to take up that much but uh it's literally necessary to save his life aish a baby from Park wow and the donor is also aish from Park donor I believe is coming from Monte the call from when I got the call that that we need to have a find the match for the baby I right away had we have an in-house designer that started putting together a like a poster and we sent out all over the place a thing that there's a baby that needs a transplant if anybody's a match with the blood type with in a day or two we had approximately 15 20 callbacks wow and six emails of people that were right away ready to test because they felt so bad cuz it was a baby it made it even uh more heartwarming so on the on the pamphlet on the flyer it said that it say it's well it's it's a young baby we had in the background was a picture of the actual picture of the baby oh wow yeah why would a person agree to cut his liver there many people who have given a kidney and um they say that the feeling that they had after they were finished is just the best feeling in the world that they save another person's life Wow and then it comes and they hear this thing about a liver they're they want to do it again so usually by every regular case the hospital only lets us test one person at a time okay to see if they're a match but when it came to this case from when it's a tiny baby they wanted to speed up the process and they let us test three at a time how does the phone call process go to the donor hey you match we we are you willing to do it who does that so they go through a lot of testing and then they got a call back from the doctor that they're a match and then we helped them with the process to get are there people who backed off last second yes we just had that wow with a different case that we went through the whole process of finding someone they did all the we had a bunch of people testing found a match and then when when it came to scheduling a Time the person got nervous and why do you think that happened I guess it's it's it's it's not easy it's a big deal it's a it's a surgery it's a scary surgery so you know you you can't blame them yeah they have to be comfortable okay we're arriving in 3 minutes I'm excited the inspiring part for me is to see the donors because the the recipient doesn't have a choice you know for him this is this is important this is something he's doing anyway but the donor for them to stop their life and go out of their comfort zone and do a a risky thing for another just just to save someone's life I'm assuming they're not making any money off this no they're not making any money right no they don't get the promised nothing from the government no so this this is this is a uh what do you call this selfless Choice mitz mitz Mish okay so what is happening now we thought there's valet and we have to drive to the parking and we put away the cameras already the regular cameras now I'm filming only on the GoPro hopefully I can get some footage of the entrance because Security in general in the entire world don't like cameras right the nurses and the doctors nurses and doctors get so much food which is nice I think it's definitely worth it for them to do these uh [Music] transplants putting out the camera in the hospital normally so I'm filming with the GoPro V say situation we had too much food and we were too many people coming in at once so yet we're splitting units and hopefully we can get in with this food we went we went where did we go we went to the donor yeah so we dropped off half the food by the donor and then the other half food now we're crossing the street to another building and we're going to the Pediatric to the recipient pediatric right pediatric is a whole another building look so we have to walk like another two blocks now it's morning already took like an hour just to get in and the whole he tells me he sees the he looks into my bag and he says I see I see you have a nice camera not in the hospital you're not you you about whatever he said like seven languages of uh warnings so uh my bad I just walk around with it all the [Music] time we just arrived at Columbia hospital and we're here by a 12we old baby that's going in for Liv a surgery in a couple of [Music] minutes we came just to say hi to the team meet the doctors we put them some food and um see everything's going to go [Music] well so right now the donor is going into surgery and we just met with a baby's family checked up on them we met with the doctors and nurses everything seems to be running on schedule we put out a with the photo of the baby we got like the biggest response ever people say pick the photo of a baby like it's heartwarming sit here okay so let me find a normal frame uh we're doing a liver transplant on a two-month-old this is a more difficult transplant this is a small child um what the child has as far is relatively unusual transplants a high-risk sport you know things go wrong people die the survivals surprisingly are amazing the other thing that I think is a testament to this baby is the person that's donating has no personal relationship with this baby right so this is what we call a non-directed we used to call altruistic donor but non-directed donor so this is someone that uh with an outcry from the community regarding a need for a liver that they've sacrifice their themselves for someone they don't have a relationship with I mean I think you always have a relationship with other people but I'm talking about a a blood relationship and I think that's a testament to not only the the strength of the community the strength of will of these individuals but also the technique we use removing the liver laparoscopically that permits lower risk and lower morbidity for the donor so this is uh this is an exciting you know a small baby with an optimistic donor is uh is beautiful [Music] so we are waiting outside of Dr iman's office and we're hoping to get a nice interview wow there's a beautiful view over here beautiful view beautiful view I don't know if you can see the whole thing but the thing is what got me very much is that when we came in all the staff the nurses and the doctors all of them were very very surprised and touched some of them got teared up knowing that the donor is non related the whole thing with uh getting the right footage it's been very very hard hard um they don't allow really cameras and the whole thing but uh we're trying over here okay okay just make sure this is so what do you use for the sound the built-in mic that thing oh this thing transmits to what to this today we have the privilege of taking care of a little baby who has a sick liver who's in quite serious condition and thanks to the generosity of a wonderful young woman who's decided to donate part of her liver we are able to save this baby's life I think that if he did not have his transplant today he would only have days to weeks to live We are one of the leading centers particularly when using living donor transplants to uh save these children people who have have chosen to save someone's life without knowing the patient or the family it's a remarkable and today is a very special day because it's the first time we are using the robot thereby making it even safer and more precise in fact it's possible for the donor to go home in just 2 or 3 days unlike 7 to 8 days if it's done by opening the body between 12 and 1:00 the new liver will arrive it will be a a triangular shape once the blood is flowing through the liver it comes to life it starts making life-saving proteins and other molecules that the baby needs there's a lovely family and a lovely Community supporting him and so this is something really special and uh will save lives if more people can can do [Music] it elevators and hallways and more elevators and more hallways and there's a bridge it just doesn't end look at that thing it says stay amazing from the outside I don't know if you can see it this little cooler that he's taking along we bought it for the food but everybody thinks that he's transp transporting an organ okay that's what it looks like I think this is live in the o fourth floor right now my wife is in the operating room uh donating her liver and I'm outside waiting for when she comes out to be here uh my wife came to me and told me she wants to donate a liver and there's an organization that does it and they're going to follow along with us if I'm okay with it and I said yeah I'm fine if she wants to go ahead with it I'm ready to support her what happens to a person she wakes up one morning and she decides to donate a liver she donated a kidney after the kidney she said okay now what else I want to help more people how can I help more people wow I'm very proud of my wife it takes a lot of guts to do it uh I'm not sure I would be able to do it uh so yes we're all very proud of her I can tell you that the nurses and the doctors were very emotional to see that it's a non related donor altruistic donor yeah they were very emotional about it and also the baby itself once I saw him I went in um it was I know I got emotional I saw the picture yesterday of the baby I got emotional about it and it actually reinforced like yeah whatever we have to go through somebody has to do somebody has to save the baby and if my wife is up for it I'll do what little I can to help support it the doctor also told me that uh he would give him days or weeks if if it wouldn't be this transplant I know yeah that's why so originally they said that oh she was supposed to come in today for an evaluation and then they were going to make a decision and then that that could be another month another two months and then all of a sudden last week or this week even uh they said no the situation turned it became an emergency and they want to go ahead and schedule it right away wow and so here we are so what would you say a message to someone else who's considering so the way I look at it everybody has to do it there's somebody out there that needs needs a liver needs a kidney it goes for anything if you can help somebody and you could do it you you physically capable of doing it you have the support behind you that you can do it definitely you have to do it we should be able to be by the together we didn't have a parking because we came too early right and now we have to walk back a few blocks till the parking lot wow what an inspiration what an inspiration that we can help out these people and we can find the match we can save a life it's uh it's it's Priceless it's literally saving a life we we sat by the doctor he said the baby has like days or weeks yeah and mama you know coming into that room and seeing that baby oh my gosh it got me so hard yeah I actually have a small baby at home bem and it [Music] was the biggest benefit is is that we're familiar in the field we have a nurse on [Music] staff we know the doctors we have a relationship with them because we've been dealing already with many people [Music] if there ever an issue a patient needs a favor or something we can always go directly to the surgeon directly to the doctor ask him ask him the questions that they have or the concerns and and and take care of [Music] [Applause] [Music] it Y how was it what a day it was what a day amazing what a day yeah [Music]