In a final bid to save the life of nine-year-old Hannah Lendor, who needs urgent liver transplant, local and foreign doctors held a news conference yesterday to highlight the severity of her condition.
Little Hannah was diagnosed with advanced Liver Cirrhosis earlier this year which caused her to develop a lung disease, called Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS). Doctors said the liver disease could have been caused by auto-immune hepatitis. If she doesn't get a liver transplant by November she may die before seeing the new year, they said. "The lung disease has evolved to the worst," said Dr Pedro Rivas, director of the Liver Transplant Programme in Caracas, Venezuela. Rivas is responsible for performing the operation at the Metropolitan Policlinia, in Caracas. He said because of the lung disease not enough air reaches Hannah's lungs and she has to be constantly hooked up to an oxygen machine.
It was for this reason Hannah was not present at the conference at the office of her local physician Dr Leonardo Ackhan. Rivas noted if Hannah missed the November date for the surgery, "it will be complicating" things as there was a long list of other children who needed transplants. He noted, though, there was a 60 per cent chance of survival after Hannah's surgery. "I wanted Hannah to remain for at least three months in Caracas in order to ensure that 60 per cent chance," Rivas said. Hannah's mother, Arlene, who will donate part of her liver to Hannah, again appealed to the public to help raise the $1.3 million needed for the surgery. She said the money also covered airfare, housing, food, transportation and other expenses for she and her other two children to stay in Caracas for the three-month period. She noted her two children will make the trip to Caracas to help Hannah and she after their surgery.
"We raised over $100,000 but that was all used up when Hannah and I travelled to Caracas less than two weeks ago to run tests to see if I was a compatible donor," she said. She said although sometimes in good spirits, Hannah is generally depressed as she is aware of her condition. "She told me she didn't think she could make it through the surgery, but that she is desperate to go back to school," the Sea Lots mother said.
?�2 Anyone willing to help little Hannah can deposit money into an RBTT account- 8917113188- or contact Lendor at 465-4567.
