Fastest liver transplant in history saves Brit student’s life

LONDON - Liesl Johncock, who lapsed into a coma and had only 48 hours to live, was given a new lease of life when doctors performed the fastest liver transplant ever on her.

A team of doctors located the organ in a mere 15 hours and began the transplant procedure.

Johncock, 20, woke up three days after the transplant without any knowledge of the feat that had saved her life.

An NHS patient needing a liver has to wait an average of 95 days before he/she can get one, but luckily in Johncock’s case doctors found a liver with the right shape and size and the correct blood match two hours after she fell into a coma.

“When I opened my eyes I was very woozy and still very dazed. I didn’t know where I was or what had happened,” the Daily Expressed quoted Johncock as saying.

She said: “The doctor explained what had gone on and said I had already had a liver transplant. I was speechless. I slept through the whole thing. It is only now that I can fully comprehend what happened to me.”

She added: “I still cannot believe how quickly they managed to find me a new liver. I am so grateful. They saved my life without me having a clue what danger I was in. I have a different outlook on life now.

“Everything seems so much more precious to me. I make sure I get the most out of everything I do and live each day to the full.”

Johncock, a child-care student at Tamworth College, suffered fainting bouts in September and soon developed jaundice.

After her surgery at Burton Hospital in Staffordshire, she was diagnosed as suffering from Autoimmune Sclerosing Cholangis, an abnormality of the immune system. (ANI)