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Local Teen Receives Much-Needed Liver Donation

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A local teenager received the liver he desperately needed, while clinging to life at Children's Hospital.

Friday, 14-year-old Adam Snow's parents made a public plea to enlist help in finding their son an organ donor.

Snow has acute liver failure and has been in the hospital unconscious, in a drug-induced coma.

However, the family got the liver they needed sometime around late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

Doctors say the next few days are critical for Snow, but his parents are hopeful.

"We can't believe someone had a big enough heart to give him a chance," Snow's Mother Linda said. "And that's where he's at -- he has a chance."

As of late Saturday morning, the family says Snow is out of surgery and in intensive care.

Snow's mother and father, Mel, said Friday that time was of the essence and wanted to reach out to anyone who would listen.

"That is our prayer -- that someone will reach out," Linda Snow said. "And I know they're already in a horrible position. I'm sure that they don't want to deal with their own trauma, but this could save a life."

In order to survive, Snow needed a whole O-negative liver -- which he got, from an 86-year-old woman.

Snow's family says his liver was attacked by an airborne virus and for an unknown reason, his immune system wasn't able to fight it.

Doctors say Snow will be in Children's Hospital for the next three weeks. After that, he's facing a three to six month recovery.

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Family Makes Desperate Plea For Liver Donation To Help Gravely Ill Teen (11/9/2012)
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