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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An emotional meeting today at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles between a Utah liver donor and the ten-month-old girl who received the organ.
Katie Hale of St. George, Utah, wiped away tears as Alondra Martinez's mother, Evangelina, appeared with the baby, who was outfitted in a pink dress and matching bonnet.
Alondra was diagnosed with bilary atresia, a disease in which the ducts carrying bile from the liver to the intestine are blocked. She needed a translant to survive.
Hale signed up two years ago to be a liver donor after researching online about how the organ can grow back.
Hale continues to feel some discomfort in her side after the surgery, but doctors expect her liver to regenerate in six to 12 weeks. Alondra has to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of her life, but doctors say her outlook is positive.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
