▲ (From the left) Professor Sung-Gyu Lee and Mr. Sang-joon Lee, the Honorary President of the National Liver Transplant Korea

“I was terminally ill due to end-stage liver cirrhosis, but Asan Medical Center (AMC) gave me a gift of 30 more years of life.” Mr. Sang-joon Lee (72 years old) is an Honorary President of the National Liver Transplant Korea who underwent liver transplantation with the liver donated by a brain-dead patient in October 1992, the first year AMC started to perform liver transplantation. Mr. Lee has developed a close relationship with AMC for 30 years. His story of successful surgery and recovery gave hope to many liver transplantation patients and has become a foundation of confidence and driving force for AMC Liver Transplantation Team in recording the history of liver transplantation.

In 1991, Mr. Lee was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis which developed from hepatitis B and required urgent liver transplantation. On October 8, the next year, he had a call from AMC Organ Transplantation Center that a liver transplantation can be arranged with a brain-dead patient’s liver. Early morning the next day, Professor Sung-Gyu Lee of the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery started the surgery which was successfully completed in 23 hours.

Mr. Lee had received a systemized ICU care and continued to take great care of his health after being discharged from the hospital. For 30 years after surgery, he has walked more than 10,000 steps every day, stayed away from drinking and smoking, administered with antibody shots for hepatitis B, and been under regular outpatient examinations.

Mr. Lee has also made efforts to help ease financial difficulties of liver transplantation patients and improve how they are treated. To help patients who give up their treatment, burdened with treatment costs incurring after liver transplantation, Mr. Lee took the lead in the establishment of National Liver Transplant Korea. Thanks to the efforts made by a number of liver transplantation recipients including Mr. Lee, expensive antibody shots for hepatitis B and various medications were covered by Korea National Health Insurance, and liver transplantation patients were also categorized into disability groups who were then able to receive various financial supports. In addition, they raised funds to establish the ‘Sharing Happiness Foundation’ and helped dozens of patients who could not afford to pay for their liver transplantation surgery. Professor Sung-Gyu Lee also pitched in and provided supports by, for example, donating all his book royalties to the Foundation.

Meanwhile, the first deceased donor liver transplantation at AMC was performed in 1992 and total 1,344 cases of deceased donor liver plantation and 6,666 cases of living donor liver transplantation have been performed until September this year. The 1-year, 3-year and 10-year survival rates are 98%, 90% and 89%, respectively, far exceeding the transplantation survival rates of the U.S. which is an advanced country in organ transplantation. Patients who underwent liver transplantation at AMC includes Korea’s first pediatric living donor liver transplantation (1994, 9 months old at the time), Korea’s first adult living donor liver transplantation (1997, 38 years old at the time), world’s first case of liver transplantation using modified right lobe graft (1999, 41 years old at the time), and world’s first case of two-to-one liver transplantation (2000, 49 years old at the time). All these patients have continued to live healthy since their surgery.

Professor Sung-Gyu Lee said, “30 years have passed since Mr. Lee’s surgery, and now, organ transplantation in Korea has reached a level where we can proudly say we are the world’s best. In the future, I hope to see many more long-term survivors like Mr. Lee.”

▲ The relationship of Mr. Sang-joon Lee and Professor Sung-Gyu Lee started as a patient and a doctor. They have been working together for 30 years to help alleviate difficulties of liver transplantation patients and improve how they are treated.

In the photo, (from the left, fifth and sixth) Mr. Sang-joon Lee and Professor Sung-Gyu Lee are attending a symposium for organ transplantation promotion hosted by the National Liver Transplant Korea.