The doctor pulled the life support cord off the little girl and tried to take her to the operating room for a liver transplant.

The father was willing to donate his liver, but his child's chance of survival was only 5-10%. The family asked to remove the life support device and wait for death. The doctors had to be very persuasive to bring the child back to the operating room for a liver transplant.

The baby survived, was able to sit up and eat by himself after the transplant surgery.

The 15-year-old girl in Thanh Hoa is the most serious patient in liver transplants at Viet Duc Hospital so far.For the past two years, the baby has shown signs of jaundice and fatigue. In early February, the baby experienced a bout of gastrointestinal bleeding and coma. In early March, the baby was diagnosed with acute liver failure on the basis of Wilson's disease, and a liver transplant was indicated.The baby was transferred to the hospital in a pre-coma, with a 90% risk of death.

The 39-year-old father was willing to donate his son's liver for transplant. However, before the transplant was scheduled, the child's condition worsened to the point where doctors thought it would be difficult to perform the transplant. After 3 hours of intensive care, the child's health improved but he still only had a 5-10% chance of survival after the transplant. At this point, the family changed their mind and decided to remove the life support device to take the child home to prepare for the funeral.

"If the child's chance of survival was 50%, the father would be willing to donate his liver for a transplant, but it's only 10%," the family said. The family also painfully shared that "they don't dare to trade the health of the family's breadwinner when the father lost half of his liver to transplant to the child but still couldn't save his daughter."

The doctors were truly saddened by the family's heartbreaking decision. The surgical team walked out of the operating room in a daze after removing all the equipment connected to the child..Doctor Bui Duc Phu, Director of Vinmec Hospital (where the baby is being cared for after surgery) said: "We are very sad, removing the baby's life support device means everything ends, the end of a human life."

Unwilling to let the child leave the hospital to wait for his final moments, the doctors decided to try to convince the family one more time. Luckily, this time the family agreed to give their child another chance at life.

After the liver transplant, the patient's basic vital signs were stable. Photo: NP

Professor Tran Binh Giang, Director of Viet Duc Hospital, recounted: "The family decided to take the child home. I was about to sign the discharge papers when I was lucky enough to convince the family to continue the liver transplant for the child. This was also a very nerve-wracking decision for the doctor in the child's life-threatening condition."

Littlewas rushed to the operating room by doctors to prepare for a liver transplant.Doctors only had time to evaluate the basic compatibility index between the liver donor and recipient before proceeding with the transplant.In the next room, the father was having half of his right liver removed by the doctor to transplant to his child.

More than 100 doctors and nurses from Viet Duc Hospital gathered on March 29 to save the baby.Dr. Nguyen Quang Nghia, Director of the Organ Transplant Center, Viet Duc Hospital, said that the transplant was difficult because the child had a blood clotting disorder that often contraindicated surgery, showed signs of infection, and had poor blood supply to the hepatic artery.

The nine-hour transplant surgery was finally successful.The baby is now awake, sitting up, eating, has no fever, vital signs are stable, liver function is recovering well as expected. The father is also awake, in stable health, eating, and liver function is recovering normally.The father is expected to be discharged from the hospital on April 7. The family described the surgery as a miracle that brought life to their daughter.

According to VNE