Giving Children Another Chance at Life

Rainer Gruessner

For Rainer Gruessner, giving

children another chance at life is

a primary motivation for his

development of groundbreaking

contributions to the medical field.

One of these contributions

includes successful bowel

transplantation in pediatric

patients.

In 1998, Dr. Gruessner transplanted six

feet of small bowel from a father to his

son. The 16-year old boy had lost all of

his small bowel as a result of a car

accident two years prior. At the time of

the accident, the teenage patient was

unable to digest food properly, forcing

him to receive intravenous feeding or

total parenteral nutrition (TPN).

Instead of receiving the bowel from

a living donor, Dr. Gruessner

instead used three organs of a

deceased infant, allowing the young

patient to receive a liver and

pancreas in addition to the small

bowel. This three organ transplant

was the first of its kind in Arizona

and the Southwestern United

States.

The patient is no longer on TPN and is

capable of digesting food. Her quality of

life is markedly improved and she is

growing up like a “normal” child. The

procedure was just as important to the

University Medical Center in Tucson:

patients who previously required such

transplants were forced to travel to

Nebraska or to Miami to receive

treatment.

http://www.slideshare.net/DrRainerGruessner

https://drrainergruessner.wordpress.com/

https://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-rainer-gruessner-3mlnr