A young Australian transplant patient has defied modern medical doctrine by spontaneously switching blood types and taking on her donor's immune system.NSW teenager Demi Brennan is believed to be the first person in the world to completely accept a donated organ to the extent where her immune system entirely changed.
Demi, now 15, suffered liver failure and had a liver transplant at the age of nine in 2001. Several months on from the transplant, her doctors at Westmead Children's Hospital were shocked to discover her blood type had changed to match the blood type of her deceased male donor.
On closer inspection, specialists found that stem cells from the donor liver had penetrated her bone marrow, effectively resulting in a naturally-occurring bone marrow transplant.
Her treating doctor Michael Stormon said she was able to come off the immunosuppressant drugs that most transplant patients needed to take life-long to ensure they don't reject the donated organ.
"We were stunned, absolutely stunned, and also very puzzled," said Dr Stormon, who reported the novel case in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: Smh
Update: Image updated! Found a video of her interview here!
Tags: Demi Brennan | Liver | Organ | Transplant | Blood | Immune System
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