Alyssa Smith

A month from today Alyssa Smith of Schertz, Texas, and her mother Terri will have a lot to celebrate, as has been the case for the last 20 years.

Thanksgiving 2008 will be another very special day for the young woman, who expects to turn 21 in February 2009.

Alyssa was 21 months old when she became the first recipient of a liver from a living donor, who was her mother Teri Smith, according to http://www.todayinscience.com/%2011/%2011%2027.htm.

"On Nov. 27, 1989, Dr. Christoph Broelsch's team of doctors at the University of Chicago Hospitals implanted part of a woman's liver in her 21-month-old daughter in the world's first successful living donor liver transplant. Alyssa Smith from Schertz, Texas, received a portion of her mother Teri's liver.
"Dr. Broelsch performed the first liver transplant using a segment of a cadaver liver while at the University of Hannover in 1984. At the University of Chicago, he performed the first segmental transplant in the United States (1985), the first split-liver transplant (one donor, two recipients) in the U.S. (1988) and developed the technique for transplantation from a living donor. "

Thanksgiving all around.

On Nov. 27, 2003, President George W. Bush secretly flew to Iraq to spend Thanksgiving with American troops, says www.infoplease.com

At http://www.todayinsci.com/ learn the 50th, 100th and 200th science anniversaries marked by Year 2008.