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
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.
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.
"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."
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.
The organizers will provide medical support and physiotherapist Cheung Wai-ling is traveling with the team.
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.
It is also the first time that recipients of other organs, such as lungs and liver, will represent the SAR.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
發表於 2007-8-21 02:37:01