[News]Transplant athletes go for gold in Bangkok
<P><STRONG>Transplant athletes go for gold in Bangkok</STRONG> </P><P><FONT color=#767676>(STANDARD)</FONT> <FONT color=#767676>20/ 08 Monday 05:30AM</FONT> </P>
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<P style="DISPLAY: inline"><FONT size=3>Lomond Chu Lok-man was born with jaundice. As he got older, his symptoms worsened. By the time he received a liver transplant at the age of 11, he was given only "two or th</FONT></P></DIV>
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<P style="DISPLAY: inline"><FONT size=3>ree months to live."</FONT></P></DIV>
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<P>But, five years on, Chu is among 21 Hong Kong athletes who will compete in the nine-day World Transplant Games to be held in Bangkok from Thursday. More than 1,500 athletes from 64 countries will take part in the Games.</P></DIV>
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<P>Chu, now 16, is the youngest member of the Hong Kong team. Like many of his teammates, he has a keen sense of his narrow scrape with death, and the second chance that an anonymous organ donor gave him.</P></DIV>
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<P>"Once when I woke up in the middle of the night, the blood I coughed up covered the bottom of the bathtub," he recalls. "Teachers started praying for me in school assemblies. That's when I got scared, and I realized I could die."</P></DIV>
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<P>The Secondary Four student at St Paul's College said he still needs an intravenous drip at least twice a month. "My parents are a bit worried that I will get sick during a competition," said Chu, who will compete in the long jump, cricket ball throw and 100 meters individual events as well as the 4x100 meters relay.</P></DIV>
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<P>The organizers will provide medical support and physiotherapist Cheung Wai-ling is traveling with the team.</P></DIV>
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<P>This is the second time Hong Kong is sending a team to the World Transplant Games. The local team that competed in 1993 comprised mainly kidney recipients.</P></DIV>
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<P>It is also the first time that recipients of other organs, such as lungs and liver, will represent the SAR.</P></DIV>
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<P>Leung Hoi-ming, 68 - the oldest team member - is proud of it. He will be playing in the table tennis singles and mixed doubles events, as well as in 10-pin bowling. At his doctor's suggestion, he received a kidney donation in 1995 in Foshan since the waiting list in Hong Kong was too long.</P></DIV>
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<P>More than a decade later, the average waiting time for a kidney donation in Hong Kong is still up to five years. Of the more than 1,400 people on the waiting list, many survive on dialysis. In some cases, a shortage of donors proves fatal.</P></DIV>
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<P>"More than half of the patients waiting for heart and liver transplants die while they're on the waiting list," said Dr Chau Ka-foon, president of the Hong Kong Society of Transplantation, who is the team manager.</P></DIV>
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<P>Leung says he has not filled out an organ donor card, but he has tried to persuade his son and daughter-in-law to sign up as donors.</P></DIV>
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<P>Dr Beatrice Cheng Shun-yan, senior executive manager of the Hospital Authority, said hesitation is a common practice since many Hong Kongers consider organ donor cards inauspicious.</P></DIV>
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<P>The campaign for organ donations now encourages people to tell family members they are willing to donate their organs.</P>
<P>Refer to <A href="http://hk.news.yahoo.com/070819/318/2dw0h.html">http://hk.news.yahoo.com/070819/318/2dw0h.html</A></P></DIV></DIV>
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