Teenager Badly In Need Of Liver Transplant Miraculously Recovers Thanks To Quick-Working Dialysis Machine

CBS New York

July 23, 2021

Try to imagine being a healthy high school student, and out of the blue one day you’re in liver failure so bad you may only have days to live without a transplant.

That happened to one teenager, but as CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez reported Thursday, the boy had a miraculous recovery, thanks to what’s been called a dialysis machine for the liver.

Diego Catalan was 17 years old, a junior in high school, learning plant science, playing saxophone in the marching band, and clowning around with his twin sister. Then, after a routine day at school, he spent the next day vomiting and then slept for 36 hours. “He just wanted to keep laying back down and going to sleep, so it was kind of scary. And he was already not behaving like himself. He was like acting like weird,” said Alice Catalan, Diego’s mother. “He was kind of out zombie, and then the doctors started telling me that he’s in acute liver failure and he needs a liver transplant right away.”

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