The search for organ donors can often be challenging — if help isn’t offered promptly enough, the patient’s situation may turn dire.
After getting diagnosed with liver cancer, a 67-year-old man is in urgent need of a liver transplant.
Unfortunately, the initial candidates for the transplant were unable to proceed further due to medical and personal reasons.
The family of the senior is now appealing to the public in hopes of finding a suitable donor.
Earlier this year, Tan Huileng – the daughter of the 67-year-old – shared about her father’s plight on Facebook.
He had received a liver cancer diagnosis after suffering from a low-grade fever, jaundice, and significant weight loss.
His family took him to a hospital in Malaysia for treatment, where doctors informed them he had two tumours in his liver.
Source: Facebook
While the doctors initially recommended a surgical resection of the rumours, this was later deemed unsuitable due to liver cirrhosis — scarring of liver tissue.
As a result, the only option left was local chemotherapy, aimed at slowing the progression of the tumour.
“However his liver function is not good and has [a] high chance of deterioration,” Tan explained. “Life expectancy could be 1-2 years.”
The family then sought second opinions in Singapore, where a local surgeon proposed a liver transplant.
Source: Facebook
Ms Tan shared that the outcome of the transplant procedure is “better” than chemotherapy, adding that there was an experienced transplant team at the National University Hospital (NUH) with a success rate of over 95%.
However, Ms Tan and her mother were unsuitable donors given their blood types.
After the initial post in March, Ms Tan posted about her father’s situation again on Wednesday (21 Dec).
She stated that although two candidates volunteered for the transplant, they could not proceed due to medical and personal reasons.
As such, they are appealing for more candidates to step forward to increase their chances of getting a suitable donor.
A potential donor must fulfil the following criteria:
Donors can choose to either donate their right or left liver lobes. More info can be found via the Facebook post here.
We can only imagine the stress Ms Tan and her family must be going through. Hopefully, a donor will step forward soon to offer their assistance.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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