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DYING DRUG ADDICT REFUSED 2ND LIVER TRANSPLANT
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Original Message
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Me personally, I think that if she screwed up her 1st chance, then she should not get a 2nd chance:
Claire Murray is a 24-year-old mother of two who has only months to live if she does not have a liver transplant, but she is being refused a place on the waiting list for a donor organ.
Her family knows her case will polarise views because she has abused heroin in the past.
She even took drugs after her first transplant last year to treat acute liver failure caused by 12 years of addiction to amphetamines and heroin.
That donor liver has now failed, and doctors at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital have told her parents, Michael Murray and Val Milne, they cannot consider her for a second transplant.
Ms Murray's family accepts she continued to abuse drugs after the surgery but argue that the success of the transplant may have been limited because of issues with the surgery and inadequate rehabilitation.
Nationals MP Vince Catania and Labor MP Martin Whitely are campaigning for the mother of Chloe, 5, and Taj, 4, to be given another chance.
Mr Murray said yesterday his daughter had been a happy and healthy A-grade student at a Perth private school before being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at age 12. She was prescribed dexamphetamines and began abusing the drugs, later moving on to speed.
"We feel one thing led to another, and ultimately her addiction, and that's when our problems began," he said.
Mr Murray said his daughter had been on the methadone program before her transplant and was deemed fit for the surgery but he did not believe she was properly followed up to ensure she did not continue to abuse drugs.
Ms Murray's mother had given up work to support her and she had been clean of drugs for eight weeks.
"She now has three to six months to live," he said. "We're very aware that if Claire goes back on the list it doesn't mean she's going to get one and it's not necessarily going to save her life. But everyone deserves another chance."
Ms Murray said she felt far more prepared and determined to make the most of any chance she was given.
A SCGH spokeswoman said the hospital operated a world-class liver transplantation unit that met Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand protocols for eligibility and had exceptionally high survival rates.
It denied that surgical care or post-operative treatment were lacking or contributed to Ms Murray's outcome.
Late yesterday, Health Minister Kim Hames said Ms Murray did not meet national guidelines for a transplant and it was not reasonable to provide an organ to her when there were seven West Australians waiting for their first transplant.
He said 19 liver transplants were carried out in WA last year, and three people died waiting for a new liver.
But he said the State Government was prepared to pay for his Mr Murray and his daughter to go to New Zealand for the case to be reviewed by a specialist experienced in "live" liver transplants, which used a piece of a liver from a living family member.
[link to au.news.yahoo.com]
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