A Northern Ireland family is pursuing a legal challenge to get a life-saving liver transplant on the NHS for their son, who has been told he could die within a fortnight.
Gareth Anderson, who suffered acute liver failure after a weekend drinking binge, has been told it could be six months before he receives a donor organ due to NHS transplant guidelines relating to alcohol abuse.
His father, Brian, has appealed to Northern Ireland’s health minister to intervene and treat the case as an exception.
“I’ve basically two weeks to save Gareth,” Mr Anderson said today. “I have to take this to the courts, what else can I do.”
It is common medical practice in the UK to insist that liver patients whose conditions are linked to alcohol abuse go without a drink for six months before going on the waiting list.
Mr Anderson said the guideline should apply to older patients with chronic alcoholism, but not a teenager who had never before needed medical treatment for a drink-related illness.
He intended to launch a judicial review in Belfast high court, but it is understood the challenge may have to be made in England after Gareth was transferred from the Ulster hospital near Belfast to Kings College hospital, in London, at the weekend.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Gareth said on Radio Ulster: “I’ll never touch another drink for the rest of my life. It’s not worth it. It was just one weekend with loads of drinking and it will never happen again.
“I don’t want to end my life this early. I’m going to keep on fighting and hope for the best. This is the most painful time in my whole life. A transplant means everything in the world to me.”
A spokesman for Kings College hospital said Gareth was in a stable condition.
Last week, the Stormont health minister, Michael McGimpsey, said all decisions about the case had to be left to the doctors involved.
