The genetic abnormality affected his nerves and major organs, leading to their failure
By
Judith Tan
Mr Lau with his wife Lim Foong Ngee. His double transplant has made Asian medical history, but he is just glad he will be around to see his youngest child grow up. ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
IT began in 2005 with a bout of diarrhoea, which lasted six months. But after his right leg started to go numb as well, retired pastor Lau Chin Kwee, 58, consulted a neurologist.
He was diagnosed with familial amyloid polyneuropathy - a rare genetic disorder which results in the liver producing an abnormal protein that affects the nerves and also attacks the major organs like the heart and liver.
'I will never forget the one who gave me my life back and I am very thankful to the loved ones of the donor.' Retired pastor Lau Chin Kwee
Without a transplant, Mr Lau would have died within two years.
The genetic disorder affects one in about 100,000 Caucasians, but there is no available data on how frequently it occurs among Asians. His only option - a double transplant.
Two weeks ago, Mr Lau made medical history when he became Asia's first heart-liver transplant recipient. The operation at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), bought him another 10 years of life.
'One of the things God gave me in my old age is a son. He is already six and it is a great responsibility bringing him up. I want to be there,' the father of three said on Friday on his decision to go ahead with the operation. His two other children - a daughter and a son - are already in their 20s, but he wanted to be around for his youngest son, he explained.
According to a US-based registry for patients with the same disorder, 55 multiple organ transplants were carried out up until June last year, 17 of which were heart-liver transplants.
It was reported that Dr K. C. Tan from Gleaneagles Medical Centre carried out the world's first such double transplant in the early 1990s in a British hospital.
On Friday, doctors who were part of the team of 50 medical staff from SGH and the National Heart Centre gave details of the operation that lasted 12 hours and 20 minutes.
The team started with the heart transplant, which was completed within 3 1/2 hours, before moving on to the liver, which took another five hours.
Both teams were up against several challenges both before and during the operation. For one thing, Mr Lau had lost much body mass and was 'terribly malnourished,' said the surgical director of the liver transplant service at SGH, Dr Tan Yu Meng.
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
