Tang Kai-him’s mother has appealed for people to help her son live. Photo: SCMPA ten-year-old boy and a 60-year-old retired school principal, in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, are in urgent need of transplants within a week or two, health chief Dr Ko Wing-man confirmed on Sunday.
The youngster, Tang Kai-him, is suffering from heart failure and requires an organ from a deceased donor of a similar size to him, with A positive blood. He urgently needs a transplant within the next two weeks. Kai-him is 131cm tall and weighs 36kg.
“His life is at risk if he doesn’t receive a heart transplant within these next two weeks,” Dr Timmy Au Wing-kuk said. “Right now, he has severe heart failure and his heart function is at 1 per cent.”
Au added that a donated heart with a 15 per cent size deviation would be acceptable, so even adult hearts from deceased donors would still be suitable for Kai-him. He has been on the city’s heart transplant list since May of this year, but he has not managed to find a suitable donor heart.
Last month, the doctors decided to use a biventricular assist device (BiVAD) on the boy to aid with his heart function, but his condition gradually became critical as he developed blood clots and experienced stomach bleeds.
60-year-old Wu Man-ming has acute liver disease and is also in dire need of a transplant. Wu needs a live donation from someone aged 18 to 57 with the blood type O positive. Doctors say that he needs a new liver in order to survive. Wu is a former head of SKH Holy Trinity Church Secondary School in Ho Man Tin, and the school has posted messages on its website and Facebook page calling for out for aid and asking for community members to pray for Wu.
Ma Cheuk-long, a 20-year-old Chinese University student, underwent urgent heart transplant surgery in June after suffering from a severe form of myocarditis, but died in late August from multiple organ failure.