A healthy 57-year-old man who decided to be a living liver donor for his brother has died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York from surgical complications.

The death of Mike Hurewitz, a reporter for the Albany Times Union, who donated the right lobe of his liver to his brother Adam Hurewitz, 54, is the second donor death that has been reported in the United States. Several deaths have been reported in Europe.

Mount Sinai said it had temporarily suspended adult-to-adult living donor liver transplants, and New York State health officials said they would send investigators to the hospital to determine the circumstances of Hurewitz' death.

While there has been a major upsurge in adult-to-adult living donor liver transplants in recent years, with more than 500 performed in the United States since 1997, a number of doctors view this procedure with concern since the risk of death to the donor is not viewed as insignificant.

A spokesperson for Mount Sinai Hospital, which has been among the most aggressive in performing living-donor liver transplants, said the death was its first donor death in approximately 100 surgeries.

In a living donor transplant, a large part of the donor's liver -- in some cases up to 70 percent -- is removed and transplanted into an adult recipient. The liver then characteristically regenerates in both the donor and the recipient in approximately a month.

Mt. Sinai declined to provide any details about the death, which apparently occurred three days following surgery, but said in a statement "the doctors are evaluating the situation and communicating with the family."

The recipient of the liver, Adam Hurewitz, a physician from Long Island, was reported recovering.