Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority appeals for liver donor for boy, 13

Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority has appealed to the public for a liver donation for a 13-year-old boy suffering from severe liver failure who urgently needs a transplant.

The authority, which is also seeking help from mainland China, said on Thursday evening that the boy, being treated at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, was now in a serious condition.

“The patient has been experiencing severe hepatic failure and developed severe complications including recurrent hyperammonemia and cholangitis,” it said.

“[He] is clinically assessed as requiring an urgent liver transplant and is listed at the top of the liver transplant waiting list for O+ blood group.”

The authority urged members of the public to proactively support organ donation and consider donating the organ of a deceased relative to “rekindle the lives of others”.

Apart from searching for a suitable liver locally, the authority said it would also seek help from the mainland through the government given the boy’s condition.

Under the cross-boundary organ donation and matching mechanism, an organ from a deceased donor on the mainland may be allocated to a Hong Kong patient if no suitable recipient is found on the mainland.