Mother risks life to save her son's

Chen Yurong (right) leaves the ward for the liver transplant operation for her son at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, yesterday. Her son is seen in the other bed. Chen Yong
What others thought was just an exercise routine to lose weight was, for Chen Yurong, a way to save her son's life.

The 51-year-old Hubei native knew she had to improve the condition of her liver in order for doctors to cut part of it out - and transplant it into her son's body.

So in February she went on a diet and marched about 10 km a day.

The result, even broadcast yesterday by State television CCTV, was a successful 14-hour operation to save her son from a life-threatening liver disease.

"In order to give my young granddaughter a complete family, I'd like to do everything to save my son," Chen said before the operation.

While Chen and her 31-year-old son, Ye Haibin, are now in stable condition at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan. He suffers from Wilson's disease, or hepatolenticular degeneration. Health experts said a living organ donation was not the best way for Chen to save her son, given that about 1 out of 1,000 liver donors die after the transplant surgery.

"Living organ donation is just an alternative when there's no suitable deceased organ donated," said Chen Shi, an organ transplant expert with the Institute of Transplantation at Tongji Hospital.

"It's kind of a dilemma facing transplant doctors worldwide whether to do living organ transplantations, which involve potential health risks for the donor, particularly in countries like China without robust voluntary organ donations after death," he told China Daily yesterday.

Last December, when Ye was again rushed to hospital, doctors said that a liver transplant would be the only way to prolong his life. That's when Chen made the decision to give part of her own, as it's even harder and more expensive to get a match from others.

More than 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants each year. However, only 20,000 finally get one, official statistics show.

Last year, living transplants accounted for at least 40 percent of the nationwide total, experts estimated.

Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu previously warned that living organ donations involve risks for both donor and recipient.

In the worst cases, both could die, he noted.

"We have had such tragedies in China before," he said.

"The best way is to set up a nationwide deceased organ donation system and encourage more people to donate organs for life-saving transplants after death," he said.

In 2007, China issued the Regulation on Human Organ Transplantation to ban all forms of organ trade and request that living donations be restricted to spouses, blood relatives or people sharing family bonds.

Meanwhile, a nationwide deceased organ donation system held by the Red Cross Society of China and the Ministry of Health is being established.

Source:China Daily