CALGARY – An infant girl from Winnipeg has undergone an experimental transplant procedure in Calgary _ believed to be the first of its kind in Canada.
    
Nazdana Jan was born with a urea cycle disorder, a genetic disease that causes ammonia to build up in the body.
    
Doctors at the Alberta Children’s Hospital say if left untreated, the disease would lead to brain damage and death.
    
The best treatment is a liver transplant but Dr. Aneal Khan says it is a very tricky procedure in such a small child.
    
So Khan, a medical geneticist, and other doctors performed a series of liver cell transplants, with the healthy cells keeping the baby’s ammonia levels down.
    
The aim is to stabilize the baby’s ammonia levels until she is big enough for a liver transplant, and Khan says the girl is currently doing so well, she is heading back to Winnipeg this weekend.