More shops may up prices Girl’s liver donor is Articles/2014/MAR/ST... · Mr Rudyan Kopot, head...
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By SALMA KHALIK SENIOR HEALTH CORRESPONDENT HE HAS never met her, yet he will go under the knife today so that a 10-year-old child will have a chance to live a normal life. The unnamed man is the sec- ond person in Singapore to donate part of his liver to a total stranger. The first, cabby Tong Ming Ming, volunteered part of his organ to civil servant Toh Lai Keng in March last year. Phyllis Poh, a Primary 5 pupil at Bedok Green Primary School, found a donor after her older brother, Skye, expressed a wish to The Straits Times in November that someone would give an organ to her. Two men came forward, and one of them, who is in his 40s, was a match. Skye, 12, himself had a liver transplant from his mother in Feb- ruary last year. He went on to complete his Primary School Leav- ing Examination (PSLE) the same year, though he missed months of school. Both he and Phyllis suffer from a rare disease that causes their liv- ers to fail or become cancerous, as well as their growth to be stunted. Their mother, Madam Joanne Ng, 36, a housewife, could not al- so donate part of her liver to Phyl- lis, much as she wanted to. Their father, who operates a food stall, is not a match. Skye found himself in the news when the PSLE results were re- leased, and he took the chance to voice his wish for his sister to find a donor. Liver transplants from living donors are not as common as kid- ney transplants, as they carry a higher risk. Last year, there were 12 living liver donors here, com- pared with 34 for kidney. A very excited Phyllis said yes- terday: “I want to meet the uncle and say thank you and wish him a speedy recovery.” Under organ transplant rules here, the donor and recipient can- not meet before the transplant, but both parties have said they would like to meet, and will likely do so after they have recovered from surgery. Meanwhile, Phyllis has made him a card, covered with stickers that she treasures specially be- cause “you have given me part of your precious liver”. She entered National Universi- ty Hospital (NUH) on Monday to prepare for surgery. Her fear was soothed by a thorough briefing from Skye, so she is now only “a little scared”. But more than that, the little girl, who because of her disease is shorter than her healthy seven- year-old sister, is looking forward to a more active life – like that which Skye now enjoys. Skye has grown by more than 10cm since his transplant last year. His mother donated her organ when he developed two nodules that doctors said could become cancerous if he did not have a new liver. Yesterday, she said: “I’m so very grateful that Singaporeans have such big hearts, to come for- ward like this.” Unlike kidney donation which is considered very safe, liver dona- tion carries a higher risk of compli- cations to the donor of 10 to 15 per cent, according to internation- al figures, and the risk of death or a serious problem of 1 per cent. A spokesman for NUH said the hospital has done close to 50 liv- ing donor liver transplants and “we have not had any deaths or se- rious complications”. Dr Alfred Kow from the Nation- al University Centre for Organ Transplantation will lead the team to get the liver, and Professor K. Prabhakaran, head of paediatric surgery at NUH, will transplant the liver into Phyllis. [email protected] www.facebook.com/ST.Salma Phyllis with her mother, Madam Joanne Ng, in hospital, where she was preparing for surgery. She is holding a card she made for her donor to thank him for giving her part of his “precious liver”. ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG Man in his 40s only the second in S’pore to give liver to stranger Girl’s liver donor is an unknown ‘uncle’
Transcript of More shops may up prices Girl’s liver donor is Articles/2014/MAR/ST... · Mr Rudyan Kopot, head...
KUALA LUMPUR – Forest andpeat-soil fires in seven PeninsularMalaysian states are causing thehaze that has risen to “unhealthy”levels in many districts in Selang-or and Negeri Sembilan, the envi-ronment ministry said yesterday.
It said that the haze, which hasadded to the burden of water ra-tioning after a month-longdrought in parts of Malaysia, didnot originate from forest fires inIndonesia.
Yesterday, the government’sair pollutant index (API) climbedabove the “unhealthy” 100 rangein the early evening in a districteach in Selangor, Kuala Lumpurand Negeri Sembilan.
A total of nine other districts inKL and the two states had API atthe above-80 “moderate” level –higher than a day earlier.
Cloud seeding that began onMonday has induced rain over
some dams and water catchmentareas, Malaysia’s MeteorologicalDepartment said.
“We are trying to identifyfire-prone areas, especiallypeat-soil land, and steps are beingtaken,” Natural Resources and En-vironment Minister G. Palaniveltold Bloomberg News.
Disputes over the haze flare upregularly between Indonesia andits neighbours. The latest was lastJune, when haze in Singaporereached a record high because ofIndonesian forest fires.
Still, the pollution now blanket-ing KL and the two states is notcoming from Indonesia, the De-partment of Environment said.
“The medium level of haze thatthe country is experiencing now isdue to internal sources resultingfrom land and forest fires in a fewstates,” it said on its website.
“The chances of Peninsular Ma-
laysia experiencing cross-borderhaze at this time are low becauseof the wind patterns,” it said in areference to raging fires in Riauprovince in Sumatra.
The statement identified thestates with forest or peat fires –caused by the dry weather – as Se-langor, Perak, Pahang, Johor, Ke-
dah, Kelantan and Terengganu.About half of the forest fires in
Riau are on land managed by oilpalm, timber and logging compa-nies, said a report by the WorldResources Institute, a Washing-ton-based advocacy group.BLOOMBERGL SEE HOME B8
By SALMA KHALIKSENIOR HEALTH CORRESPONDENT
HE HAS never met her, yet he willgo under the knife today so that a10-year-old child will have achance to live a normal life.
The unnamed man is the sec-ond person in Singapore to donatepart of his liver to a total stranger.The first, cabby Tong Ming Ming,volunteered part of his organ tocivil servant Toh Lai Keng inMarch last year.
Phyllis Poh, a Primary 5 pupilat Bedok Green Primary School,found a donor after her olderbrother, Skye, expressed a wish toThe Straits Times in Novemberthat someone would give an organto her. Two men came forward,and one of them, who is in his40s, was a match.
Skye, 12, himself had a livertransplant from his mother in Feb-ruary last year. He went on tocomplete his Primary School Leav-ing Examination (PSLE) the sameyear, though he missed months ofschool.
Both he and Phyllis suffer froma rare disease that causes their liv-ers to fail or become cancerous, aswell as their growth to be stunted.
Their mother, Madam JoanneNg, 36, a housewife, could not al-so donate part of her liver to Phyl-lis, much as she wanted to. Theirfather, who operates a food stall,is not a match.
Skye found himself in the newswhen the PSLE results were re-leased, and he took the chance tovoice his wish for his sister to finda donor.
Liver transplants from livingdonors are not as common as kid-
ney transplants, as they carry ahigher risk. Last year, there were12 living liver donors here, com-pared with 34 for kidney.
A very excited Phyllis said yes-terday: “I want to meet the uncleand say thank you and wish him aspeedy recovery.”
Under organ transplant ruleshere, the donor and recipient can-not meet before the transplant,but both parties have said theywould like to meet, and will likelydo so after they have recoveredfrom surgery.
Meanwhile, Phyllis has madehim a card, covered with stickersthat she treasures specially be-cause “you have given me part ofyour precious liver”.
She entered National Universi-ty Hospital (NUH) on Monday toprepare for surgery. Her fear wassoothed by a thorough briefingfrom Skye, so she is now only “alittle scared”.
But more than that, the littlegirl, who because of her disease isshorter than her healthy seven-year-old sister, is looking forwardto a more active life – like thatwhich Skye now enjoys.
Skye has grown by more than10cm since his transplant lastyear.
His mother donated her organwhen he developed two nodulesthat doctors said could becomecancerous if he did not have a newliver. Yesterday, she said: “I’m sovery grateful that Singaporeanshave such big hearts, to come for-ward like this.”
Unlike kidney donation whichis considered very safe, liver dona-tion carries a higher risk of compli-cations to the donor of 10 to 15per cent, according to internation-al figures, and the risk of death ora serious problem of 1 per cent.
A spokesman for NUH said thehospital has done close to 50 liv-ing donor liver transplants and“we have not had any deaths or se-rious complications”.
Dr Alfred Kow from the Nation-al University Centre for OrganTransplantation will lead the teamto get the liver, and Professor K.Prabhakaran, head of paediatricsurgery at NUH, will transplantthe liver into Phyllis.
[email protected]/ST.Salma
By WAHYUDI SOERIAATMADJAINDONESIA CORRESPONDENTIN JAKARTA
FOREST fires and the thick hazeover Riau in the past two monthshave caused economic losses total-ling at least 10 trillion rupiah(S$1.1 billion), Indonesia’s Nation-al Disaster Management Agency(BNPB) said yesterday.
This includes the cost of dam-aged land, as well as disruptionsto flights and businesses, BNPBspokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugro-
ho told reporters after a Parlia-ment hearing on natural disasters.
“There is also a political im-pact when the haze crosses bound-aries,” he added.
His comments come as firescontinue to rage in Riau, thoughlight overnight rain for the firsttime in weeks in parts of the prov-ince brought some relief to resi-dents. Analysts, however, expectthe number of hot spots to riseover the next 10 days as the poten-tial for more rain is expected to bevery low.
The prolonged disaster is setto see the number of residentswith respiratory illnesses rise be-yond the current 30,000, andthe financial toll of the haze is al-ready double that of heavy floodsin Jakarta over the same period,officials said.
The recent volcanic eruptionsat Mount Sinabung in North Su-matra and Mount Kelud in EastJava also caused damage and loss-es amounting to some one tril-lion rupiah each, said the BNPB.
Officials plan to start cloudseeding to induce rain today,alongside water-bombing opera-tions already being carried out byhelicopters to put out fires, and
efforts by some 1,500 soldiersand firemen on the ground.
Mr Rudyan Kopot, head of theplantation committee at the Indo-nesian chamber of commerceand industry, said officialsshould ask for outside help.
“The scale of the fires in Riauis so vast it requires as manyhands as possible,” he told TheStraits Times. “Singapore needsto help with technology andskills.”
Observers say farmers contin-ue to illegally burn land to clearit for planting, which is muchcheaper than renting excavators.
Gerindra MP Sumarjati Arjosocriticised BNPB for failing to
take pre-emptive measures, say-ing: “We get flight cancellations,complaints from neighbours, payhefty costs to put out fires. For-est fires embarrass us as well.”
But BNPB chief Syamsul Maar-if said it was not easy to changethis culture of burning.
In Central Kalimantan, hesaid, the local authorities workwith residents to carry out strict-ly controlled burning that takesinto account weather and windforecasts. This, he said, had re-sulted in a much lower numberof hot spots in that province. Asimilar effort could be carriedout in Riau, he added.
By CAROLYN KHEW
THE price of certain fruits andvegetables coming in from Malay-sia could go up at more storeshere if the dry spell continues.
Supermarkets and most whole-salers here said that their pricesare stable for now, even thoughsome shops have already admittedto hiking prices by up to 25 percent for fruits such as watermelonand papaya.
The dry spell, which started inJanuary, has caused water sup-plies at dams in states such as Kua-la Lumpur, Selangor and Johor tobe at critical levels. Water ration-
ing has also come into force inparts of the country, where rain isnot expected until at least the mid-dle of this month.
Madam Wang Quee Chiang,who owns two fruit stalls in ToaPayoh, has increased the price ofa kilogram of watermelon from $2to $2.50 due to the shortage insupply from Malaysia. A kilogramof papaya at her shop costs $2now, an increase of 20 cents.
“Fruits such as these are highin water content and they needwater to grow,” she said. “Withno rain, the supply will definitelybe affected.”
Mr Tay Khiam Back, chairman
of Singapore Fruits and Vegeta-bles Importers and Exporters Asso-ciation, said that the dry spell willcontinue to affect supplies to Sin-gapore if it persists.
However, retailers and whole-salers here can always look for oth-er sources, such as Vietnam andThailand, to make up for anyshortfall, he added.
While major supermarketshave not raised prices, some haveseen a decrease in the supply ofsome Malaysian vegetables andfruits.
Papayas, watermelons andleafy vegetables such as kangkungfrom across the Causeway havegone down by about 10 to 15 percent at Giant, said a spokesmanfor Dairy Farm, which runs thechain.
While Sheng Siong declined to
reveal figures on how much itssupplies of Malaysian producehave fallen, a spokesman said thatit will “top up” from other coun-tries like Thailand and Vietnam tokeep prices stable. She added thatshould price increases become “in-evitable” if the dry spell contin-ues, they will be “gradual”.
Malaysia was the biggestsource of fresh and chilled vegeta-bles and fruit last year, said theAgri-Food and Veterinary Authori-ty, adding that it is closely moni-toring the situation in Malaysiaand will work with traders on al-ternative sources if necessary.
Part-time saleswoman SoonKam Mee, 56, says she will contin-ue to buy Malaysian fruit regard-less of price increases, “especiallynow that the weather is hot”.
Phyllis with her mother, Madam Joanne Ng, in hospital, where she was preparingfor surgery. She is holding a card she made for her donor to thank him for givingher part of his “precious liver”. ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
Malaysia’s landmark Petronas Twin Towers shrouded in haze in Kuala Lumpuryesterday. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A forest burning next to a cleared area in Indonesia’s Riau province last week. The economic losses from forest firesand the haze include the cost of damaged land and disruptions to flights and businesses. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Man in his 40sonly the secondin S’pore to giveliver to stranger
Dry spell affecting supply of produce;major supermarts yet to raise prices
Forest fires and hazehave cost Riau $1.1b
More shops may up pricesof Malaysian fruits, veggies
Girl’s liver donor isan unknown ‘uncle’
Haze in Malaysia ‘notcaused by Indonesia’
A2 TTOOPP OOFF TTHHEE NNEEWWSS W E D N E S D A Y , M A R C H 5 , 2 0 1 4 W E D N E S D A Y , M A R C H 5 , 2 0 1 4 TTOOPP OOFF TTHHEE NNEEWWSS A3
