Mom, 63, cured of hepatitis after receiving part of liver from son, 37, in first-of-kind 3-D surgery: reports

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After 27 years living with autoimmune hepatitis, a Utah mother has been cured thanks to a part of her son’s liver and an innovative new treatment that used 3-D technology, according to a report.

Gwen Finlayson, 63, said she’s lived with hepatitis for nearly three decades, despite doctors’ insistence that she undergo a liver transplant. But by her early 60s, her good fortune was running out and doctors told her she needed a transplant soon. That’s when her 37-year-old son, Brandon Finlayson stepped up to the plate.

"How do you respond to that? This is my son. It was hard," Gwen Finlayson said.

Using a new 3-D technology at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, doctors practiced the surgery ahead of time before performing the procedure in February, FOX 13 reported.

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The doctors took the left lobe of Brandon Finlayson's liver, which doctors say represents about 40 percent of the organ, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"I finally have a healthy liver. That's not to say those 27 years weren't great. I've had a great life but this gives me so much hope, so much hope," she said.

As of May, both mother and son are reportedly healthy and recovering. Gwen Finlayson said she no longer has autoimmune hepatitis and is taking medication to keep her body from rejecting a foreign organ.

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The surgery was the first left-lobe, live-donor liver transplant of its kind, the Tribune reported. Dr. Manuel Rodriguez-Davolos, who performed the surgery, told the paper he expects to more of the left-lobe live transplant surgeries to be performed across the country.