Doctors in Armenia recently performed the seventh liver transplant in the country.

Forty-one-year-old Anahit Mazlumyan was diagnosed with an incurable liver disease a year ago.

To save her life, doctors suggested a liver transplant. Medical tests revealed that her son, Paulo, could be a donor.

The family moved from Beirut to Armenia years ago. Paulo is a jeweler by profession, but still hasn’t found work in Armenia.

"We didn't have any other option. I was the only one who was eligible. We did the research and found that my liver corresponds to my mother's,” Paulo tells Hetq.

 To become a donor, Paulo had to lose weight. "Doctors said I should lose some weight. They gave me a diet," he says.

The December 2 operation lasted nine hours. Doctors transplanted 65% of Paulo's liver to his mother.

The family needed seventeen million drams ($42,000) for the operation. The Armenian government donated five million drams and the remainder was collected   by the Aleppo charitable NGO.

Doctors at Yerevan’s Astghik Medical Center say all seven liver transplants were successful.

Arayik Voskanyan, who heads the hospital surgery department, says that while many people need a liver transplant not all have relatives who can be donors.

Organ rejection is much lower when the donor is a relative. All previous liver transplant donors were relatives as well.

Paulo and his mother are doing well.

"I am healthy now. I need to eat more so that my strength will return a little sooner," says Mrs. Mazlumyan.