To celebrate 10 years of liver transplants at The Royal Children’s Hospital, an anniversary celebration will be held on Sunday 30 October at 11.30am at the hospital.  Transplant patients, families, and staff will join with the Minister for Health, the Hon. Bronwyn Pike to celebrate this milestone.

Since 1995 when the first liver transplant was undertaken at The Royal Children’s Hospital on 9 month old Jordyn Griffin, over 70 children have received new livers. 

Children who need a liver transplant have liver failure and liver transplantation is their only chance of survival.  The most common cause of liver failure is the disease, Biliary Atresia. Children with this disease are unable to excrete bile because of damage to their bile ducts which in turn leads to severe jaundice and is fatal unless treated.

Liver transplants at The Royal Children’s Hospital demonstrate a unique collaboration between staff at RCH and the Austin Hospital. The transplant operation is performed by Professor Robert Jones and his team of highly skilled surgeons from the Austin Hospital and takes around 6 to 12 hours. Following the transplant, children spend 2 to 4 days in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and then around a month on the ward under the care of Dr Winita Hardikar, Head of Hepatology, and her team of liver specialists. 

“The Royal Children’s Hospital has an excellent success rate for liver transplants, equivalent to the best units in the world.  The long term survival of recipients stands at 87% which is an amazing result given that the patients have no chance of survival without it,” said Dr Winita Hardikar.

“With so many sick children on our organ donor list, we are continually exploring new ways to improve the health of our patients. Over the past 10 years we have performed a number of groundbreaking procedures including splitting one liver between a child and an adult and a liver cell transplant.”

A highlight of Sunday’s anniversary celebration will be for many of the patients to celebrate this milestone with the staff who saved their lives.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT KATE STRONACH, PUBLIC AFFAIRS, THE ROYAL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, 9345 5882/0403 806 052.

This event received the following media coverage:

• Herald Sun
• The Age
• Ch 2, 7, 9 television news
• 3AW, 774 ABC Melbourne, Melbourne Magic, 3MP, SEN 116 radio news