Twenty-three-year-old William "Billy" Beyer Jr. often wondered about his purpose in life.

Billy's mother, Rosalie Beyer, had an answer.

"I always told him, "Honey, when the time comes, you'll know it. God will guide you and you'll know automatically,'" she said. "When this thing happened with his father, Billy said, 'Ah, this is it. Now I know why I'm here. I know what I want to do.'"

Billy Beyer made Iowa medical history of sorts when he voluntarily donated half his liver to save the life of his father, 58-year-old William Beyer, Sr. of Hanover, Illinois.

The elder Beyer has cirrhosis, caused by hepatitis C infection and alcohol consumption, and liver cancer. His liver was replaced by the upper right lobe of Billy's liver. Both livers regenerated in the weeks following the operation and are now about the same size as the whole organ. Doctors say both father and son are doing well.

The transplant operation was the first of its kind in Iowa and one of a relatively few performed nationwide. The complex 18-hour procedure was performed October 22, 1999, by a University of Iowa Health Care transplant team led by You Min Wu, MD, director of Organ Transplant Services.

Wu was assisted by transplant surgeons Stephen Rayhill, MD, Adel Bozorgzadeh, MD, and Carol Scott-Conner, MD, head of surgery. Dozens of other staff contributed to the success of University of Iowa Health Care's first transplant from a living adult to another adult.

Liver transplantation is extremely complex, and removing the right lobe of a liver from a living adult donor multiplies the complexity, Blood transfusions are often required, though no blood transfusion was required for the younger Beyer.

"It's a very high-risk and unique procedure," Wu conceded. "The waiting list for donor livers is long and getting longer. Mr. Beyer needed the operation to survive, and his son volunteered without being asked."

Nationally, the shortage of donor organs from cadavers is forcing transplant surgeons to consider such procedures. Some 14,000 patients were on the waiting list recently, yet fewer than 4,500 people received transplanted livers during 1998.

Wu said Billy Beyer was carefully informed about surgery's risks in advance of the procedure. In accordance with University of Iowa Health Care's standard practice, the physician who evaluated him and explained the risks was not involved in the operation.

"No one wants the donor to feel pressured in any way," Wu said. "It's very important that they make a free-will decision without undue influence from anyone else."

For more information about University of Iowa Health Care's organ transplant programs, patients should call the toll-free UI Health Access number, 1-800-777-8442, and ask for Barbara Schanbacher, University of Iowa Health Care's transplant coordinator.

Billy Beyer (left) donated half his liver to save the life of his father, William.