Sarah Chee was told in 2010 she had less than two weeks to live due to liver disease when a miracle happened: She received a last-minute liver donation and was able to get a transplant.
A second miracle happened this month: She became the first Hawaii liver transplant recipient to give birth.
Alexandria Kamalaniomakana Chee, a healthy 7-pound, 5-ounce girl, was born Aug. 15 at the Queen’s Medical Center.
"It’s amazing, I feel really blessed," Sarah Chee said. "Before I had the transplant that wasn’t even on my mind. I didn’t think that that would be possible. We didn’t really have that much hope. So when it happened we were really excited."
There are 14,000 women of reproductive age who have had a liver transplant in the U.S. But there are only an estimated 25 to 30 births each year in the U.S. from liver transplant patients, according to Linda Wong, director of the liver transplant program at the Queen’s Transplant Center.
"It’s rare but it’s not unheard of," Wong said. "It’s not totally impossible."
The Manoa resident and her husband, Marc Chee, had been trying to conceive for the past six to seven years.
"(Marc) and I had been trying for many years to have a baby, but I was just too sick," Chee said.
The 39-year-old Manoa resident had a liver replacement at the now-defunct Hawaii Medical Center-East in Liliha in May 2010 and became pregnant after a fertility treatment last year.
Transplant patients are on medication for life following the surgery and must be closely monitored during pregnancies that are considered high-risk and often prone to high blood pressure, miscarriage, prematurity, low birth weight and a number of other complications.
The first known pregnancy in a liver transplant recipient was in 1978, according to the National Institutes of Health.
"I just look at her (Alexandria) and I’m so thankful," Chee said.
