News Releases

Transplant Team Receives National Award For Excellence

American Liver Foundation Praises Exceptional Expertise at Memorial Hermann

Houston, Texas, July 16, 2004 — Outstanding clinical results achieved by the Texas Liver Center drew high honors from the American Liver Foundation (ALF), which recognized the Memorial Hermann Hospital transplant team with its national excellence award.

“The American Liver Foundation distinguished Memorial Hermann’s transplant surgical intensive-care unit with a special award for their expertise in cutting-edge developments in organ transplants,” said Patti Witliff, director of the ALF’s South Texas Chapter. “The team’s remarkable success with innovative procedures brought them well-deserved national attention.”

The Texas Liver Center, which offers medical expertise provided by a team of internationally renowned physicians, was formed a year ago to set a new benchmark for services that began in 1985 with Memorial Hermann’s first liver transplant.

Leading the five-member team as transplantation program director is surgeon Luis Mieles, M.D. Dr. Mieles is also professor of surgery with the University of Texas Medical School-Houston’s Division of Immunology and Organ Transplantation. Along with him, the Liver Center’s team includes medical director Rafael Botero, M.D.; Hadar Merhav, M.D.; and Jacqueline Lappin, M.D. The most recent addition to the team is Bob Saggi, M.D., who joined July 1 after serving as a clinical fellow in the liver and pancreas transplantation division of the University of California-Los Angeles.

Since Mieles and his team came to Memorial Hermann in April 2003, they have performed 50 liver transplants with a survival rate exceeding 97 percent. Innovative procedures they employ include adult living-donor transplants.

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