
15/07/2025
Korean medical team flies to Philippines, saves 20-year-old man with living liver transplant
Mr. Franz Aren Babao Reyes, 23, has suffered for four years from primary sclerosing cholangitis. Recently, he was admitted to the ICU for sepsis. Due to chronic biliary inflammation, his liver function deteriorated and he needed a liver transplant.
Professors Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Sang-hoon of the Department of Liver Transplantation and Biliary Surgery at Seoul Asan Medical Center performed the transplant with the patient's mother, Maria Lorena Mendoza Babao, as the living donor. The mother was discharged five days after the transplant, while her son is scheduled by the end of the week.
In the Philippines, the rate of organ donation is one per a million people. The liver transplant survival rate also falls below the international average. Makati Medical Center, which has no experience in living donor liver transplantation, requested medical staff exchange and liver transplantation training from Seoul Asan Medical Center, and the two hospitals signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for medical exchange in 2023.
Seoul Asan Medical Center has performed 7,563 living donor liver transplants so far, and in May of this year, it achieved 9,000 liver transplants, including brain-dead donor liver transplants, setting the world record for the most liver transplants by a single medical institution.