Hope for Ieva after mother gives part of liver

HOPES have risen that a baby girl who received a liver graft from her mother this week will see her first birthday.

Nine-month-old Ieva Zukaskaute from Rahoon, Co Galway, and her mother, Kristina, underwent the complex procedure on Tuesday at King’s College Hospital in London.

Ieva was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare disease that affects newborns, when she was six weeks old and has already undergone two unsuccessful operations to correct her condition.