Essen. Three children between the ages of five and 15 and one adult are still being treated in the intensive care unit at the Essen University Hospital for acute liver failure after eating death cap mushrooms. Even very small amounts of the dangerous toad stool can be fatal because the liver is severely damaged. Since Tuesday night, the search for suitable donor livers has been underway.
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According to information from Saarländischer Rundfunk, a child and an adult received a liver transplant at the Essen University Hospital. Despite the transplant, the health of those people is always vital. The other two children would continue to wait for a donor liver.
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The “Eurotransplant” foundation is responsible for the search and the allocation. Here the three children are on the waiting list as “urgent”. This was explained by Lars Pape, Director of the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Medicine II in Essen. This is still the story, which was said in the clinic on Thursday. The Essen site is one of the 21 liver transplant centers in Germany. The children do not come from North Rhine-Westphalia, two of them were brought to Essen from Saarland. No further information was provided due to personal rights.
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In such urgent cases, known as “High Urgency” (HU), the highest priority is given to finding suitable donor livers throughout Europe, according to the German Liver Foundation. The amount or type of blood played a role, explained Markus Cornberg, managing director of Eurotransplant, to the German Press Agency. “This HU listing is valid for two weeks initially, during which time an organ is normally found.” In such urgent cases, a transplant usually takes place within hours or two to three days.
However, finding a suitable liver for children is more difficult. The problem is often the size of the organ. “Therefore, the waiting time can be longer here.” The expert explained that you can share a liver between two people, known as a “split liver”. However, in a high-urgency situation, this is not usually considered the first option. You then need to have two suitable recipient candidates at the same time.
Rescue donor liver
Nothing works without the liver; it is the largest internal organ in humans and is responsible for detoxifying the body. If the function is disturbed, the body is flooded with toxins. According to experts, liver transplantation is often the only option for lifesaving treatment for patients with liver failure.
Full waiting lists
According to data from the German Organ Transplant Foundation (DSO), around 800 liver transplants are performed in Germany. In about eleven percent of all liver transplants nationwide, the recipients are under the age of 16.
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According to the DSO, there were almost 8,400 people waiting for a donor organ at the end of 2023, of which over 6,500 were on the waiting list for a kidney. The following applies to all organs: “Some sick people have to be removed from the waiting list because of their poor health, others die because an organ is not available in time.”
RND/dpa