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| Foreign kids recover health after surgery in Korea |
As Korea continues to gain recognition for its advanced medical services, more patients from overseas are com...ing here for treatment and surgical procedures. Among them are a child from Mongolia and an infant from Russia, who became healthy after successful operations in Korea.
The parents of Damdin Jiguur, a 12-year-old from Mongolia, first thought he was simply gaining weight when he started turning puffy four years ago. As time went by, however, there was obviously serious problem. After visiting a number of hospitals in Mongolia, his parents took him to Beijing last year, where he was diagnosed with chronic renal failure. As his kidney function was already seriously damaged, the boy had to undergo hemodialysis for four hours, three times a week, in order to survive.
However, his condition worsened and his father, who was dedicated to taking care of the son, suddenly passed away early this year. Doctors said that a kidney transplant was the only hope, but it was too costly for the family who had already sold their house to pay medical bills.
The story of Jiguur was covered by a Mongolian TV program which led to 16 million won being raised for the family, and they headed to Korea University Medical Center in Seoul. The rest of the medical expense, 10 million won, was paid by the hospital, SBS Golf and Bridgestone Golf, a golf equipment trader.
Jiguur had a kidney transplanted from his mother last month, a successful procedure. "As the kidney function falls, renal failure patients see problems in almost all organs as bodily wastes pile up. They become extremely frail," said Prof. Park Kwan-tae at the hospital who led the surgery, explaining why the transplant was essential.
"I am glad that we could provide a new life for Jiguur. We will continue supporting foreign patients who are marginalized from health services,”said Kim Leen, president and chief executive of Korea University Medical Center.
Vadim, who was born in a hospital in Moscow, Russia, in February last year, meanwhile, was diagnosed with congenital biliary atresia only a week after his birth. Bile is fluid produced by the liver and it flows through a duct to the small intestine to help digestion. If the bile duct becomes blocked, patients start to suffer liver damage, which is fatal if untreated.
The baby boy soon underwent surgery to allow for bile drainage, but the surgery was unsuccessful.
Upon recommendation by an acquaintance, his parents visited the Severance Hospital with Vadim on March 25.“He had severe jaundice and had hydrops abdominis. He needed a liver transplantation because the prognosis wasn't very positive after the surgery in Russia,”explained Prof. Koh Hong at the hospital who first examined Vadim.
Vadim was admitted to the hospital in early April and had part of liver transplanted from his mother.“They both had blood type O, and the mom’s liver was a size ideal for transplantation. As we had much experience in infantile liver transplantation there wasn’t technical problem,” said Prof. Kim Myong-soo who led the surgery. “When we opened him up, we saw that he had severe adhesion of the organs. We tried our best with the baby who weighed less than 10 kilograms,”he added.
Following the successful surgery, Vadim left the hospital early this week. The hospital said that he will be visiting Severance Hospital for regular checkups.
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