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Pittsburgh Transplant Recipient, Donor Family Meet Years Later

Emotional Meeting Dozens Of Years Later Precedes Games

POSTED: 5:01 pm EDT July 11, 2008
UPDATED: 2:30 pm EDT July 12, 2008

A woman who received a liver transplant in Pittsburgh as a toddler finally got to meet the family of the donor who saved her life after a family member found her online.

Trine Engebretsen, 26, of Miami, was just a young girl in 1984 when she underwent what, at the time, was a rare transplant surgery.

Her donor was 18-month-old Amanda DeLapp, of Mayfield, Ky. She died of a brain tumor and her parents agreed to donate her organs.

Recently, DeLapp's sister, Keisha -- who never knew her sibling before she died -- found Engebretsen's MySpace.com page and contacted her.

"I almost fell off my chair," Engebretsen said. "I called my mom, and it sounds so cliche, but I said, 'They found me on MySpace.'"

An emotional meeting took place Friday between her and the DeLapp family at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown.

"I have a big sister now, kind of," said DeLapp, with a big smile.

Engebretsen is an athlete in the National Kidney Foundation 2008 U.S. Transplant Games, which are being held in Pittsburgh for the first time.


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