Doctors have saved a baby's life by injecting him with liver cells, to carry out the work his own organ could no longer do

A pioneering treatment for liver disease has saved the life of a nine-month-old baby from east London.

Doctors at King's College Hospital, south east London, injected Iyaad Syed with donor liver cells, which then started to carry out the work his liver was unable to.

The hospital's medical team say this is the first time donor liver cells have been used in this way.

Iyaad's liver was found to be failing when he was just two weeks old. Although he was born healthy, a virus caused the organ to become damaged and enlarged.

His parents took him to his local hospital after they noticed his eyes were becoming yellow and that he was making, strange grunting noises.

Because of the seriousness of his condition, which also led to the failure of Iyaad's kidneys, doctors chose to trial the new approach rather than put him on a donor list. As part of the treatment, the liver cells were injected into Iyaad's abdomen and were put in a special coating which meant they could not be attacked by his immune system.

Iyaad's liver is now functioning normally and his parents hope he will be able to live a normal life.

Jahangeer Syed, Iyaad's father, said: "We spent all our time at the hospital, and we thought he would need a transplant - fortunately, his liver has recovered and we feel very lucky to be in the position we are in today. It's a miracle."

Professor Anil Dhawan, consultant paediatric hepatologist at King's said the procedure could mark an important development in treatment options for young patients with complex liver problems.

"This could be an exciting and innovative treatment," he said. "Longer-term, we want to see whether this technique works in other patients, so we can properly assess how big an impact it can potentially have."

PA