The 51-year-old father has increasingly severe liver cancer. His son, a student at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City, decided to donate his liver to save his parents.

Infected with hepatitis B since 2006, Mr. Tran Van Sua’s health gradually deteriorated. In 2014, he was diagnosed with liver cancer and a liver transplant was the last solution to save his life.

Unable to bear seeing his father suffer from illness, 20-year-old son Tran Thanh Phong asked the doctor to take his liver to transplant to his father. Although Mr. Sua refused many times, the medical student persisted in persuading him. The mother also wanted to donate her liver to her husband, but her health was not guaranteed, and her liver was not as good as that of a young person, so the doctors prioritized her son's liver.

Liver transplant surgery performed at Cho Ray Hospital. Photo: CR

Doctors at Cho Ray Hospital, with professional support from Korea, performed surgery to remove 70% of the son's liver and transplant it to his father on December 12. The son is currently recovering well and has been discharged from the hospital. The father is continuing to receive immunosuppressant injections.

From 2012 to now, Cho Ray Hospital has performed 7 liver transplants, including 6 liver transplants from living donors and 1 liver transplant from a brain-dead donor. Among the 6 previous liver transplants, the first patient died 2 months after the transplant. The remaining cases have all recovered well, the patients are working and have returned to stable life. The liver donors are all very healthy, with no surgical complications.

Dr. Pham Huu Thien Chi, Deputy Head of the Hepatobiliary Pancreas Department, said that the donor's liver regenerates and develops very quickly. After one year, the liver volume is 80-95% larger than the original volume. Therefore, donating a liver does not affect health as people worry.

According to VNE