Liver Donors

(donated part of his liver for Dr Wai, his cousin and teacher)

From my heart………….

“Give a new enjoyable life again to the dying by donating liver”

I was not excited or thrilled to respond to the questions asked by the respectful old jury members of Transplant Authorisation Committee of the Hospital in New Delhi: “Why do you want to donate your liver to Dr Wai, a case of HCC?” My answer was “to save her life”. They added “so why to Dr Wai and why not to others? Without hesitations, my response was “Of course, I will donate to all who need. But besides being my cousin, she was my teacher. She taught me obstetrics and gynaecology when I was attending the final years of MBBS. I must give priority to my teacher as she is one of the 5 beneficiaries:- Buddha, Dhamma, Monks, Teachers and Parents.” They argued that she was no longer your teacher now. I said, our tradition teaches us that “once someone is your teacher, he or she is your teacher for life.” In the past, I have been a regular blood donor. The driving force to donate parts of my body originates from the following words of a poem.  It says “I want to give my eyes to a man who has never seen a sun-rise, a baby’s face or love in the eye of a woman”

“Give my blood to a teenager who has been pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play”

“Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week”

The juries argued again that “Do you know you have only one liver, not two like kidneys?” As I am the post-graduate student of pathology, I replied that “I will donate only half of my liver, which can save the life of my teacher and I can live very well on the remaining half which will regenerate to its own size within 2 months”. Eventually, it was followed by applause, congratulations and blessing of committee members. When I come back to my own country, Myanmar, I receive it again and again, from many people:- my health minister to my subordinates, from my Mom to nieces, from close to unknown.  I am really satisfied with these returns, which are not in a form of money but in a form of affection, respects, good wishes, and greetings which are, I believe, worthy and more valuable than money. In fact, I get a great profit because I have given a part of liver to one person, but I receive the returns from thousands or even millions. 

The message I would like to convey to others is that “give a new life to dying persons and let them live together with us by sharing our reserves:- blood, kidney, liver, bone marrow, etc.”