ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.</s>JEFF FLOCK, CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: In this case, it was a 29- year-old woman from Texas named Terri Smith donating a portion of her liver to her then-21-month-old daughter named Alyssa. Alyssa Smith was suffering from what is the most common fatal liver disease among children, something called biliary atresia, and she really had no other option at that point.</s>TERRI SMITH, ALYSSA'S MOTHER: To me, it's a neat feeling to be able to provide that for my child. And it's not necessarily something that someone else couldn't provide, but I will have the opportunity to do that.</s>FLOCK: It was obviously a very difficult operation, one that had never been performed before.</s>DR. PETER WHITTINGTON, ALYSSA'S PHYSICIAN: I'm feeling good about it. And I think things are going great. I think it's going to do fine and this child is going to do well with this transplant. But in the bigger picture, I think it's going to be a great procedure for the future.</s>FLOCK: Alyssa Smith is now a happy 12-year-old seventh grader who is, by all accounts, healthy, active, happy. The operation was a tremendous success. And, in fact, one year ago, she came back on the 10th anniversary, back to the University of Chicago Medical Center, to mark the anniversary of this history-making operation to show everyone just how happy and healthy she is.
CNN 20: First Live Donor Liver Transplant, November 27, 1989