INTERNATIONAL ORGAN DONATION AWARENESS - PERSIAN GULF

SCH to honour organ donors Friday, 03 September 2010 04:40

DOHA: Haroon Sultan from Bahrain is a living liver donor, who is now leading a normal life after donating part of his liver to his mother who had been suffering from Hepatitis C.

Sultan is one of the 27 organ donors who will be honoured at a special ceremony at the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) premises tomorrow, patronised by H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned.

The 25- year old Sultan is currently living in Qatar.

“Many people have fears and doubts about organ donation. I feel happy and confident after I donated part of my liver to my mother and I am leading a normal life,” Sultan told The Peninsula yesterday. The transplant surgery took place in the Apollo Hospital in New Delhi in April last year, but Sultan got the post surgery care and follow up treatment at the Hamad Medical Corporation, which he still continues.

Live donor liver transplant is a relatively new development and many people are not aware of its benefits, says Dr Tim Rotimi Omokehinde, consultant at the Department of Medicine/Nephrology at HMC.

“People are more familiar with transplanting the whole liver taken from a deceased donor. A major advantage of the live liver transplant is that part of the liver can be transplanted to a patient without affecting the functioning of the whole liver,” said Tim.

Liver is the only major organ that will regenerate. Both the donor and the recipient eventually will have their livers re-grown to the appropriate size for their individual bodies. Unlike the deceased donor liver transplant, the donor and recipient should undergo the surgery simultaneously.

In case of a Hepatitis patient like Sultan’s mother, the impact of the disease has to be reduced to the minimum through medication for the surgery to become successful. Sultan said the condition of his mother had improved significantly after the transplant, though she was still undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C.

Victor Montero, a Filipino national underwent a successful kidney transplant surgery in Qatar more than 10 years ago. The kidney was donated by a brain dead British national, Chris Reid.

“Reid’s family decided to donate his kidney. I have been living a normal life over the past one decade with the transplanted right kidney,” said Montero, who works as an administrative employee at the Middle East International School. The Peninsula