Materia Medica Malaysiana

Hospital gets go-ahead for liver transplant

KUALA LUMPUR: The Subang Jaya Medical Centre has been given the go-ahead for a liver transplant on a 15-month-old girl, following an assessment by the Health Ministry’s ethical committee that the prospective donor is genuine.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said the committee concluded on Friday that the SJMC could proceed with the operation on Nur Atiqah Najwa Mohd Shariff.

He was responding to a report in a Malay daily yesterday that the infant was in a critical condition.

The report said that despite having a donor, Nur Atiqah’s surgery at the SJMC was delayed because of bureaucracy on the part of the ministry.

The report said her parents had collected enough funds to undergo the transplant but the ministry allegedly wanted to conduct a meeting on the case first as donor Ahmad Khairi Al Hadi, 27, was not related to the baby.

Nur Atiqah is suffering from biliaryatresia. Her condition was reported to be critical with her mouth foaming and her stomach swelling yesterday.

She was reportedly given sleeping pills to ease her pain.

Dr Chua said the SJMC referred the case to the committee last week for evaluation because, as a rule, all public and private hospitals had to refer such cases to the committee.

”We have to impress on the donor the risks involved and also ensure that the donor is not doing it for other reasons, such as for monetary gains,” he said after opening the Miss Fitness Malaysia 2004 in Genting Highlands last night.

Dr Chua noted that many countries, including Singapore, Britain and the United States, had ethical committees to prevent abuse of non-related donor for organ transplant.

“The committee is necessary to assess if the donor is genuine and not trading organ or tissue under economic or social pressure.

“However, the Health Ministry will review to see how the procedure can be shortened, perhaps to between three and four days,” he said.

Dr Chua added that under critical situation, a doctor could actually go ahead with the transplant while waiting for the application to be approved, provided there was clinical justification.

Responding to the same report in the daily, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said bureaucracy should not delay Nur Atiqah from undergoing a life-saving surgery.

Abdullah said that the delay should not have occurred because Nur Atiqah urgently needed the treatment and the family had collected enough funds. He added that he would contact Dr Chua on the case.