Teen attempts suicide to donate liver to dying father

[general_kill]

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A 13-year-old Chinese girl tried to commit suicide because she wanted her family to donate her liver to her cancer-stricken father, state media reported Thursday.

The girl, Chen Jin, swallowed more than 200 sleeping pills after she discovered a medical note in her mother's purse that said her father was dying of liver cancer and had three months left to live, the news agency Xinhua said.

Jin's mother returned home after visiting her husband in the hospital to find the front door locked. The mother climbed in through a back window and found two empty bottles of sleeping pills.

"Mom, I'm sorry I couldn't stay with you any longer," read a note that the teen had left next to her. "Please give my liver to dad and save him after my death."

The incident occurred January 24 in Jiangsu province in east China. The teen was taken to the same hospital as her father, where she remains in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness, Xinhua said.

Doctors say that even if she pulls through, she will need surgery for burns she suffered from an electric blanket on her bed when she lost consciousness, the China Daily newspaper said.

According to Chinese media reports, the family -- whose monthly income is about 1,000 yuan ($146) -- has already spent nearly 100,000 yuan ($14,600) in medical expenses since the father was diagnosed with cancer more than a month ago. The mother, who is also in poor health, retired early more than eight years ago.

The woman told China Daily she is now trying to keep her husband from learning of their daughter's desperate act of love.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/05/suicide.for.liver/index.html

Just amazing...

 

[Camikaze]

Let's hope daddy doesn't read the paper, then.

 

[Mirc]

That's impressing and sad in so many ways.

If you made a movie about it, you'd be rich... and nobody would believe the story.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Damn, that's depressing

 

[classical_hero]

Doesn't she know that the liver can regenerate itself, so it is possible for you to donate part of your live and still have a full liver later on?

 

[Shaihulud]

13 year old understands little about biology.

 

[general_kill]

Doesn't she know that the liver can regenerate itself, so it is possible for you to donate part of your live and still have a full liver later on?

A 13 year old? I really doubt it even if she had the chance to take biology.

Hell, I didn't even know that but it's quit amazing! I think the girl was acting out of emotion and didn't have time to think it over. But it's really the gesture of giving up your life for another that struck me most about the story. I don't know if I will ever love another person enough to give up my life for theirs. Not unless it were my own child, but even then, I could always make more babies if I freeze my sperm.

No seriously, it's stories like these that inspire you and make you grateful for you have.

 

[emzie]

Why was she in her mother's purse in the first place? mmm?

 

[plarq]

Isn't taking too many sleeping pills damaging the liver?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Doesn't she know that the liver can regenerate itself, so it is possible for you to donate part of your live and still have a full liver later on?

I once said that to someone, and they said the liver doesn't work that way. When it does regenerate it will have a different structure and won't work properly.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I'm pretty sure it does work that way, so long as you don't remove too much of it. A liver that has been partially removed won't work quite as well when regenerated, but it usually good enough. It seems quite possible though that a 13 year old girl's liver would be too small to provide enough for her father and herself.

 

[Yeekim]

The guy who was shot by his own son for denying him a video game could obviously learn a thing or two about being a good parent from that father.

Amazing girl. She deserves deepest respect.

 

[Sidhe]

Isn't taking too many sleeping pills damaging the liver?

Nah it's not particularly toxic. Now paracetamol on the other hand, that's not a nice way to go. 48 hours in crippling pain as all your organs shut down, from kidneys and liver and so on.

 

[emzie]

Isn't taking too many sleeping pills damaging the liver?

It depends on how the body breaks down the chemicals. The most common OTC sleeping medication in the US is diphenhydramine (Benadryl). You could swallow the whole bottle and it won't harm the liver, though it'd probably cause a heart attack.

Nah it's not particularly toxic. Now paracetamol on the other hand, that's not a nice way to go. 48 hours in crippling pain as all your organs shut down, from kidneys and liver and so on.

Acetaminophen to North Americans. And it's not that bad, you over exaggerating the pain, though not the final outcome.

 

[Sidhe]

Acetaminophen to North Americans. And it's not that bad, you over exaggerating the pain, though not the final outcome.

True you'll be blissed out of your noggin on opiates before you die most likely.

 

[LucyDuke]

Amazing girl. She deserves deepest respect.

She's an idiot, she could've made herself more useful working to help pay off some of the medical bills she's just added to.

 

[emzie]

She's an idiot, she could've made herself more useful working to help pay off some of the medical bills she's just added to.

And yes, she's a total moron. Selflessness needn't always be lauded.

 

[LucyDuke]

Nah it's not particularly toxic.

Article didn't specify what she took...?

 

[Sidhe]

Article didn't specify what she took...?

Barbiturates aren't that toxic and neither is valium/diazepam, I don't think there are any sleeping tablets that are particularly toxic to the liver, which is perhaps why she chose them, although I'll be glad to learn otherwise.

 

[emzie]

Article didn't specify what she took...?

I'd assume diphenhydramine since it's cheap to make and the most common OTC sleeping agent. But maybe they do things different in China? Not to mention the suppler probably doesn't have the most stringent manufacturing processes so who knows what else was in the pills.

Barbiturates aren't that toxic and neither is valium/diazepam, I don't think there are any sleeping tablets that are particularly toxic to the liver, which is perhaps why she chose them, although I'll be glad to learn otherwise.

Uh, 200 doses of any benzo would threaten respiratory arrest you if you didn't vomit it up. On a 13-year-old girl it'd be even worse. Though no, that wouldn't be toxic strictly speaking.