FINAL - LIVER DONOR STORY/FOLLOW UP

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Donations to the Mucha family can be sent to the ''Mark Mucha Family Fund,'' in care of Fifth Third Bank, 3101 W. 95th, Evergreen Park, IL 60805

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LIVE-DONOR LIVER SURGERYThe liver is the only internal organ that regenerates. Surgeons began performing live-donor liver transplants between adults in the mid 1990s. The surgery involves simultaneously taking the right lobe of the donor's liver (about 60 percent) while removing a poorly functioning or diseased liver from the recipient. The right lobe is then transplanted into the recipient. The split liver grows back to normal size in each patient in about two months.