Last October, Millicent Palmer was heading off to work as a certified nursing assistant when her sister noticed that her eyes looked yellow. Palmer immediately sought emergency care at Montefiore Medical Center, where staff admitted her for testing. But in less than a week, the unimaginable happened. Palmer, who had no history of liver problems, suffered complete liver failure, went into a coma and was placed on life support.
“We’re not sure what caused Ms. Palmer’s liver to fail,” says Milan Kinkhabwala, MD, FACS, chief of the Division of Transplantation and director of Abdominal Organ Transplantation at Montefiore Medical Center and a member of the faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “But her condition deteriorated so rapidly that she was at death’s door and needed a liver transplant.”
In the past, a patient needing a liver transplant would have had to transfer to a Manhattan hospital certified for that procedure. But fortunately for Palmer, who was too ill to survive a transfer of that distance, Montefiore had recently become the first hospital in the Bronx to receive state approval to perform liver transplants, and the surgeons at Montefiore-Einstein Liver Center were able to find a viable liver within just a few hours.
TEAM OF SPECIALISTS OFFER INDIVIDUALIZED CARE
Montefiore-Einstein Liver Center’s team of specialists in hepatology, surgery, oncology, radiology, psychiatry, pediatric gastroenterology and family medicine work together to design individualized and holistic treatment plans for patients with liver disease. Some of the common types of liver problems the team treats include: hepatitis, metabolic disorders, liver cancer, benign tumors, alcoholic liver disease, cirrhosis, and acute and end-stage liver failure.
At the new center, patients receive cutting-edge medical, interventional or surgical treatments, including liver transplantation. The center’s experienced transplant team provides a very comprehensive safety net for patients and addresses their needs before, during and after liver transplant surgery.
“Liver transplantation is an extremely complex procedure, but when we can operate in time, liver transplants are often very successful,” says Dr. Kinkhabwala. “We all work together to restore patients’ health. About 80 to 85 percent of patients do very well after surgery.”
HELP AND HOPE FOR DYING PATIENT
The center’s transplant team received a viable and compatible liver for Palmer quickly when a local family donated their loved one’s organs.
“The donor previously had a kidney transplant, and the family wanted to return that gift by giving organs to others,” Dr. Kinkhabwala says.
A week after she fell ill and a day after she lapsed into a coma, Palmer became the first patient to undergo liver transplant surgery at the new center. Today, she says she feels well and looks forward to seeing her son graduate from high school this spring—a simple goal that wouldn’t have been possible without a successful liver transplant.
“I’m happy to be alive,” Palmer
says. “I would not be here today if it
weren’t for the people at Montefiore.
And I am so grateful to the family that
donated their loved one’s liver and
gave me a second chance at life. I really
appreciate the time I have with my
family and friends.”
For more information about Montefiore-Einstein Liver Center
or to schedule an appointment with Dr. Kinkhabwala, please
call 1-888-RX-LIVER.
More Than 40 Years of Excellence in Transplants
Montefiore Medical Center has one of the oldest and most renowned transplantation programs in the country. The hospital began performing kidney transplants in 1967. Over the past few years, the transplant program has expanded to include heart and liver transplants.
Montefiore is one of only 24 transplant centers in the United States that has performed the surgery on nearly 1,800 patients. The program has approximately 1,000 patients on its transplant waiting list—more than any other transplant program in New York.
In the near future, Montefiore’s transplant specialists will begin offering pancreas and pediatric heart and liver transplants.
For more information about the transplant program at Montefiore, please
call 
The articles in this publication are from Montefiore Medical Center’s publication Keeping You Healthy and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations to any individual or group.
This publication is for information purposes only.