A friend sent along this article from the NY Times about a boy who received a liver transplant when he was about 8 months old. It was meant to be a temporary solution as doctors hoped Jonathan’s own liver would eventually recover.
“Suddenly and mysteriously, when Jonathan was an infant, his liver began to fail. At 8 months, a transplant was his only hope. His parents took a chance on an unusual operation: He had a transplant, but part of his own liver was left in place in the hope that it might eventually recover so that the donor organ would no longer be needed. If that happened, the anti-rejection drugs would be stopped and, with luck, Jonathan’s immune system would destroy the transplant, leaving his own liver to do its job.”
Read more, over at the NY Times “Well” blog.
The Derek Janiak Hepatobiliary Forum 
Fascinating. Thank you. Your Dad person with love! ss