"There are many poor people in my homeland. I am truly happy to have been given the opportunity to continue serving others thanks to the liver transplant I received in Korea."
Marco Antonio Quiroz, a 69-year-old U.S. philanthropist who had dedicated his life to serving marginalized communities in his home country of Peru, recovered his health after receiving a liver transplant in Korea. "There are still many poor people in my homeland, Peru, and I have much work left to do," Marco said. "I came all the way to Korea with a sliver of hope, and miraculously regained my life."
The Liver Transplant Team at Seoul Asan Medical Center's Organ Transplant Center announced on the 28th that it successfully completed a living-donor liver transplant for Marco, using part of the liver from his daughter, Kimberly Lucia Quiroz, 30.
Throughout his life, Marco has actively engaged in real estate development and philanthropy, traveling back and forth between the United States and Peru. Using profits from his real estate business, he has continued to provide goods and financial support to those in need, including elderly residents of nursing homes, low-income families, and children battling illness.
However, after undergoing gallbladder removal surgery in Peru in 2008, he was diagnosed with fatty liver disease. The doctor explained that it appeared to be due to genetic predisposition, considering that Marco neither drank alcohol nor smoked. He also sought advice from his primary care physician in the United States regarding the test results but was told it was "not at a serious level," and thus moved on without specific treatment.
About 10 years passed, and starting last September, Marco visited a hospital in Peru due to a persistent feeling of abdominal distension. He was suffering from ascites, where fluid accumulates in the abdomen. His fatty liver had progressed to liver fibrosis by then. When he returned to the hospital this February as breathing became difficult, his ascites had worsened, and fluid had accumulated in his lungs. He was also diagnosed with signs of cirrhosis, where liver tissue hardens.
Left untreated, there was a high risk that his kidneys would also fail. A liver transplant was the only option. However, in Peru, the age limit for liver transplants is 65, excluding 69-year-old Marco from being a surgical candidate. In the United States, while surgery was possible, he would have been placed on the deceased-donor waiting list and had to wait more than a year.
Marco set out to find a solution himself and learned for the first time about living-donor liver transplant procedures. After researching countries and hospitals that safely perform such transplants, he chose Seoul Asan Medical Center in Korea.
Subsequently, Marco flew 10,000 kilometers with his family last May, arriving in the unfamiliar land of Korea for his first consultation at Seoul Asan Medical Center. The medical team comprehensively considered the donor's willingness and health status, among other factors, and chose to transplant part of Kimberly's liver to Marco.
On the morning of August 14, Marco and his daughter took their places on the operating table side by side. Professor Song Ki-won from the Department of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery performed the donor hepatectomy on Kimberly, while Chair Professor Lee Seung-gyu and Professor Moon Deok-bok from the same department performed the liver transplant surgery on Marco.
The surgery was not easy. The patient's condition was more severe than anticipated. High pressure in the liver blood vessels had caused blood vessels (cavernous hemangiomas) to tangle severely around them, resembling a spiderweb. Parts of the hardened liver had completely wrapped around the inferior vena cava (the largest vein in the human body). There was a significant risk that removing the liver could lead to stagnant blood circulation in other organs, causing swelling in the small intestine, kidneys, and pancreas.
In response, Professor Lee Seung-gyu first completed the vascular dissection procedure and then performed a bypass surgery to create an artificial pathway for safe blood flow. Subsequently, Professor Moon Deok-bok safely removed the liver from the thick blood vessels and successfully connected them to the healthy vessels of the new liver. The surgery, which began in the morning, ended successfully after 17 hours.
His daughter Kimberly was discharged on the eighth day after surgery, and Marco also recovered smoothly, leaving the hospital healthy three weeks post-operation. The father and daughter are scheduled to return to the United States on the 29th.
Professor Lee Seung-gyu stated, "I feel a great sense of responsibility that Seoul Asan Medical Center has become a place where patients with end-stage liver failure and liver cancer from all over the world come seeking their last hope." He added, "All members of the liver transplant team will strive to help patients both domestically and globally regain their health and continue their new lives."
Marco said, "I flew to Korea with a sliver of hope and miraculously regained my life in this unfamiliar land I was stepping on for the first time." He expressed his gratitude by adding, "With the new life I gained in Korea, I will live to help those in need in my homeland even more vigorously."
Meanwhile, Seoul Asan Medical Center became the first single medical institution in the world to achieve 9,000 liver transplants earlier last year. It performs approximately 400 living-donor liver transplants annually and maintains a donor mortality rate of 0%. Previously, in May, the hospital successfully completed a "2-to-1 living-donor liver transplant," where parts of the livers from two sons were transplanted to a Moroccan man in his 60s suffering from end-stage liver failure and progressive liver cancer.
in THEBIO
