Man donates half of liver to save brother

	VIDEO
Newsstand's James Hattori looks at two Virginia brothers who tried a risky liver transplant procedure. Windows Media 28K 80K

October 21, 1999
Web posted at: 4:21 p.m. EDT (2021 GMT)

(CNN) -- Most people have heard about transplant operations in which one person donates a kidney to someone who urgently needs it. But a new kind of liver transplant goes one step farther, and is raising some profound questions in the medical world.

CNN's Newsstand followed two brothers from Virginia who decided this type of transplant was their only hope.

Michael Lilly decided to have more than half of his liver removed in order to save his critically ill brother.

"I'm not looking at this as a hero thing or anything like that. It's just to see my brother be normal again," Lilly said.

This operation, in which a healthy adult donates 60 percent of his liver to another adult, has been performed fewer than 100 times in the U.S. But for Michael's 37-year-old brother, Glen, a supermarket clerk, there was no ready alternative.

Correspondent James Hattori followed the brothers throughout their surgery and recovery.