23 apr 1985 anni - Britain’s youngest liver transplant patient

Descrizione:

Benjamin Hardwick became Britain’s youngest liver transplant patient at the age of two on January 23 1984. His parents appeared prior on BBC’s That’s Live television programme to raise awareness of organ donation when Ben urgently needed a transplant, making him a celebrity.
Ben received the transplant at Addenbrooke Hospital, Cambridge to treat the effects of biliary atresia, a condition that causes inflammation to develop within the bile ducts around birth, leading to bile become trapped, build up, and damage the liver. If untreated, the condition rapidly leads to cholestasis, growth failure, cirrhosis, and will result in death from end-stage liver disease.
Although the transplant itself was successful he died 14months later just after is his third birthday on March 23 1985.
In his memory, Ben’s family set up the Ben Hardwick Memorial Fund to offer financial support to the families of children who suffer from primary liver disease. In 1997 the fund’s work was taken over by the Ben Hardwick Fund.
January 2014 will mark the 30th anniversary of the first British childhood liver transplant remembering Ben Hardwick and reflecting on the stories of adult survivors of childhood liver transplant. Today around 100 children undergo childhood liver transplant annually in the UK.