My Friend’s Dad’s Liver Failed. Seeking a Living Donor. Update: Friend’s Dad Found a Donor and Operation Went Smoothly.

Update [ 3rd November 23]: Dear all, I am happy to update that the family successfully found a donor. Lionel’s father and the donor went through the operations successfully and both are currently recovering. Thank you to everyone who considered, spread the message and put themselves forward!

Dear all, I am putting out a time-sensitive message out there.

I got to know that the dad of my friend, our fellow finance blogger Lionel at Cheerful Egg, urgently needs a liver transplant.

The doctor estimates his dad might not have much time left (like days).

The family and relatives failed to meet the donation criteria and they are exploring volunteers for living donors.

There is a set of criteria for the living donors:

1. Blood Type O+ (or O-)
2. Ages 21-50
3. Weight 65-90 kg. (This is to ensure that the liver is big enough for both the donor and donee)

The donor will have to undergo some tests and checks to verify eligibility. This will be considered as a major surgery over one-day. You will need to factor in a 4-6 weeks period of recovery.

I think some of the older readers will remember the case of TV personality Pierre Png donating his liver to Andrea De Cruz after she suffered from a liver failure and need a liver transplant.

Donors’ livers typically grow back to their original size within a few weeks.

I think the consideration for this can be more delicate. Every of our situation is a little different and even for a willing donor, you have to do serious consideration of your own situation.

I am putting this out because I know many of my readers connect with Lionel on a different level and this may be something that you would consider and help.

Now one thing to note.

For medical insurance, there are living donor benefits if you the insured, are the donor or if you are a recipient. This will be if you are the donor.

If so, many of the health insurance will have some sort of family member requirements. There are also a different limits, as this taken from MOH:

Usually, as a donor, you have to read the terms of the health insurance and usually the recipient must be the life assured’s parent, sibling, child or spouse.

Here is lifted from my policy (Singlife Shield):

However, under the recipient’s health insurance, it does cover the cost of the donor. Again this is lifted from Singlife Shield:

So those are some admin considerations.

You can reach Lionel through his Instagram DM here:

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A post shared by Lionel Yeo (@lioyeo)