Medicare pays for liver transplants in children with biliary atresia, a congenital liver condition. But many young patients who need a liver transplant have other conditions that destroy that organ and are therefore not covered by standard insurance. Medicaid coverage for transplants varies from state to state.

When [Ronnie DeSillers] died, he was waiting for his fourth liver transplant. While 15 children have received three livers at Children's, the leading pediatric liver transplant center in the nation, only one other patient has had four.

DeSillers' first liver transplant, Feb. 24, failed when a viral infection attacked and damaged the liver. The second, April 3, failed for still unknown reasons. On April 23, in a weakened condition from abdominal infection, pneumonia and an inflamed pancreas, he underwent his third liver transplant. The third liver never "took," and he died six days later of a combination of shock, pneumonia and liver and kidney failure.