Porto Alegre, 11/6/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Lorenzo Lima da Silva, 5, is doing so well after receiving 42% of his aunt's liver on September 10, that he is expected to leave the Santo Antonio Children's Hospital (Hospital da Criança Santo Antonio) in Porto Alegre at the end of this week. Young Lorenzo is the first ever patient in Rio Grande do Sul to get a liver from a live donor. The operation, performed by Dr Antonio Noque Khalil's team of surgeons, was covered by the Brazil Unified Health System (SUS), which means it will not cost Lorenzo's family anything.

Lorenzo has not had an easy time. At the age of one year and eight months, he got a liver from a deceased donor, but it was rejected. (AB)