First Five-Organ Transplant Patient Gives Birth

Fatema Al Ansari became the mother of a healthy baby girl this past February, which is usually all of the joyous news that you will ever need for a new parent. That is not the end of the good news for Al Ansari because she also became the first patient to give birth after receiving five different organ transplants, which include “a new liver, pancreas, stomach and small and large intestine.” She gave birth by cesarean section on February 26, 2013 at the same hospital in Miami, Florida where she received her transplant surgery. Al Ansari is originally from Qatar and, if everything goes well, hopes to return to home after a few weeks. She was living in her home country when her medical problems emerged. At the age of 19, “she was diagnosed with a blood clot in a major vein to the intestine.” It was the blood clot that required her to get transplant surgery.

Al Ansari is truly one of a kind. While there have been women that have given birth after receiving two organs, she is the first to give birth after receiving five organs. A number that’s even more remarkable when you consider that there are only about 600 recorded people who have received five organs. Her doctor, Shalih Y. Yasin remarked that “an adult with five transplanted organs who is sufficiently healthy to even consider having a child ‘is a miracle by itself.'” The reason for this is because there could be a number of possible complications with the pregnancy, including infection, bleeding, and a good amount of physical discomfort as the baby grows. While Al Ansari had the latter two, she was lucky to not get an infection. Other doctors noted the unusual characteristics of the birth. Many claimed that while many patients go on to lead full lives after an organ transplant, almost none of them go on to give birth.

See Suzette Laboy, Fatema Al Ansari, First 5-Organ Transplant Patient To Give Birth, Has A Baby Girl, The Huffington Post, Mar. 13, 2013.

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this to my attention.