Student fights for life on two fronts

A 20-year-old student of City University is fighting for her life against acute liver failure.

And she suffered brain edema while awaiting a transplant.

Kind-hearted citizens have contacted her family and offered to donate part of their livers, but doctors said Cheng Yu-in's brain swelling is too serious for a transplant procedure at this time.

Cheng, a year-two chemistry student and graduate of Po Leung Kuk Lee Shing Pik College, had been diagnosed with acute hepatic failure recently and is in intensive care at Queen Mary Hospital.

According to a friend, Cheng became delirious on November 3 and started to hallucinate. She then fell into a semi-coma on Tuesday.

Cheng's condition deteriorated again on Wednesday morning and she had to be put on a ventilator while awaiting transplant surgery.

Another friend, Yau, said early yesterday that five or six people had offered to donate part of their livers.

But Yau said that while the volunteers were waiting for the results of medical tests before an operation Cheng was found to have developed brain edema, so she could no longer undergo a transplant.

Doctors have told Cheng's family and friends that potential action was limited, and they had to rely largely on Cheng's willpower to pull her through.

Cheng's attending physician, Albert Chan Chi-yan, said yesterday that doctors were meanwhile treating her with medication for the brain edema, and "every second is a critical moment" for her.

Chan, a clinical associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's department of surgery, said the hepatic coma that Cheng was in had become worse, hence the reliance on a ventilator.

The doctor also warned that Cheng's situation had deteriorated quickly and she would need to receive a liver transplant within two days.

Additionally, if Cheng suffered permanent brain damage because of the edema she may never awaken.

According to Cheng's family and friends, she suffered from lymphatic swelling and fever since late September and was admitted to Yan Chai Hospital in Tsuen Wan in mid-October.

Doctors there had at one point suspected Cheng was suffering from lymphatic cancer, but a bone marrow test showed there were no cancer cells in her body.

Doctors then suspected Cheng had liver disease and referred her to Queen Mary Hospital.

Cheng's mother said the family wished they could help her, but none of them met the requirements for transplant surgery.

The family then appealed to the public, hoping someone could help save their loved one, and people responded.