Young alcoholic's wait for liver transplant

Matt Maden from Bournemouth was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis as a result of alcohol abuse when he was 21.

He started drinking alcohol when he was just 10, but his teenage years of excessive drinking caught up with him when he woke up from an alcohol-induced coma in his early 20s.

Now the 26-year-old visits King's College Hospital in London for regular check-ups because his liver is so damaged that he needs a transplant.

Mr Maden lives with his phone constantly by his side hoping to get the call from the transplant team which could save his life.

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More at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16442022

I think what makes this so different is the guys age, I mean 26 and he needs a liver transplant 8(

Either this guy already had a faulty liver or else he must have done some WORK.

^ maybe he was on one of those trendy "low carb diets" that wreck your liver and make your pancreas used to not producing as much insulin.

probably was AND did some WORK.

I wonder if they give preference to cases where the patient hasn't cause the damage to themselves. If I needed a liver transplant for an illness that I had no control over I would be fucking pissed if they gave a liver to some kid who needed it because they couldn't control their drinking.

^And yet someone who needs a liver tests positive for cannabis they get the boot. Pretty unbelievable.

LuGoJ said:

I wonder if they give preference to cases where the patient hasn't cause the damage to themselves. If I needed a liver transplant for an illness that I had no control over I would be fucking pissed if they gave a liver to some kid who needed it because they couldn't control their drinking.

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I don't know man, it's the luck of the draw imo. He should be equal to everyone else that needs a liver.

phrozen said:

I don't know man, it's the luck of the draw imo. He should be equal to everyone else that needs a liver.

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Then perhaps they could somehow monitor him and remove the liver and give it to someone else if he starts drinking heavily again? ;p

yeah!!! just like repo-men!

LuGoJ said:

I wonder if they give preference to cases where the patient hasn't cause the damage to themselves. If I needed a liver transplant for an illness that I had no control over I would be fucking pissed if they gave a liver to some kid who needed it because they couldn't control their drinking.

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This is a tough issue to figure out, but I think I have to agree with you.
He ruined his liver himself. He knew the risks, and had the fun.
I/you (in the imagined situation) got the disease randomly, or due to some faulty DNA, or fate, but it was not something we had control over.
Give us the liver first, before the party guy.

Edit: more thought on this.
Where will it end?
What if they begin to deny liver transplants to people who took protein powder, or those who ate meat?
Maybe making rules like what I was suggesting above is opening up a big can of worms.

^ Or maybe they just stop alcoholics getting to the top of transplant lists. You don't see people walking round with bags of meat sturggling to go more than an hour without a taste of that tender flesh...

Alcoholics fuck themselves up, addiction or not. So why should they get a transplant over the guy who lived a healthy lifestyle but just got bad luck? I'm not saying deny them the transplants, just put them below people who actually deserve a chance.

(I Think there was a story in the UK news a year or two ago about a guy who recieved a new liver, only to piss it away by drinking it to almost death)

There was a story on the news about a wealthy baseball player who paid his way to the top of the list for a liver transplant after being a known alcoholic and surpassed a woman who had been on the list for five years for factors out of her control...so depressing, while I can believe alcoholics shouldn't get to surpass the people with bad livers from serious health factors, it is always gonna be a domino effect make one rule and pretty soon thousands of more people complaining and millions of more problems.

my uncle, who has been an IV addict since he wa 13 (he is now 56), had to have a liver transplant about 10 years ago. he was placed at the bottom of the list and had to quit ALL drugs and alcohol for an extended period of time before they would even consider giving him a liver. his odds of getting a transplant were very low and they pretty much said the only chance of him getting one would be if a family member donated part of theirs. well he was clean for 3 years and had pretty much given up on the transplant and was waiting for death and sure enough he got the call and got a liver....he was clean 3 years before and 3 years after surgery but in true junky fashion....he started IVing dope again.

i definitely think alcoholic and addicts should be last choice when dealing with transplants but i dont think they should be excluded altogether. also, my uncle had to have a transplant due t hep-c and the fact he went 15+ years with it untreated and went HAM on alcohol and dope.

Jesus christ that is alot of alcohol . Seriously, by 21 and you already have irreversible liver damage? I would like to read an interview or something from this guy. Has anyone else heard of any cases like this?

highhooked said:

Jesus christ that is alot of alcohol . Seriously, by 21 and you already have irreversible liver damage? I would like to read an interview or something from this guy. Has anyone else heard of any cases like this?

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He was interviewed on the news here but it wasn't very in depth, just the normal "why did you do it" "how much were you drinking" "would you go back to your old ways" type questions

I remember seeing a similar story a year or so ago about an irish guy who was 19 and needed a transplant, as soon as he got his diagnosis and left the hospital he apparently went across the road and got a pint from a pub. Think he ended up recovering though, found a link here. I agree that diet probably factors a lot into liver failure aswell.

My ex-girlfriend had to get a liver transplant when she was 27. Apparently she was drinking 1-2 750ml bottles of cheap vodka every day. Also, when we were together ~7 years ago it seemed like every week i would see an empty 8 oz of RoboMax in her purse (every time she said "that's old" but she was really doing it almost every day.) I haven't heard of that causing liver damage but it definitely dosen't help. For a while she kept getting sicker & sicker while she was waiting for a liver & after she was told she only had a few months left reality set in and she freaked out. Because she was really about to die they bumped her up on the list and she got someones liver. That was about 3 years ago.
I recently started talking to her again but it didn't take long for me to realize she was drinking again - and doing DXM (the bottles were under her bed and she claimed to have brought the empty bottles when she moved in...) Her new boyfriend seems like an ok guy but he's an alcoholic too. Her apartment is littered with cans of Natural Ice & Four Loco. I've talked to her telling her "THIS IS GOING TO KILL YOU" and she'll say she knows & she knows she needs help but she never does. They aren't going to give her another liver. It cost close to $500,000 that medicare/aid paid for. It's really sad to see her doing this so I try to distance myself from her, but we've been friends (and more) for 14 years so I can't help but care. I don't like going to funerals.

I dont even understand how people drink like this. Alcohol makes me feel like complete asshole. These people must be very depressed or anxious and are trying to self medicate but do not understand that there are better substances and ways to go about treating it. Sad. I bet if they knew about kratom or even opiates for god sakes they would be better off. 8(

^An alcohol habit is way cheaper though. And more accessible.

The accessibility is definitely the biggest factor. I don't really like booze for the most part, even though I love downers. I prefer almost any other recreational drug. Yet, I spend hundreds of dollars on booze every year because I can get it whenever I feel like it almost instantaneously. Even weed usually requires fucking around with dealers, waiting around several hours, driving to a house and being social. And if you want to really stock up on an illicit substance so you don't have to go through this shit every few days then you run the risk of getting a felony.

And then drinking is constantly reinforced in film and television, social functions, etc. You can hardly spend a day without being in the presence of the hooch. Whereas if I want to give up opiates, I delete my contacts and I easily go for years without seeing the stuff being used.

It's also pretty obvious to me that it's not just the ignorance of better drugs that causes people to rely on alcohol; alcohol must just plainly be more euphoric to some people. I've had substance abuse problems before. I understand how use becomes rationalized and justified over time. I went through a couple years of crippling physical anxiety, during which alcohol was usually the only effective available anxiolytic. I still just can't imagine ever wanting to drink everyday, never mind all day. Even when I'm bored and desperately seeking a way out of sobriety I find I have very little desire for alcohol.

I find alcohol to be one of the two least interesting and rewarding drugs I have ever tried.
Nicotine is the other.
They, plus caffeine, are probably the most widely used drugs on the planet.
I have never understood this, apart from the legality.

(I do enjoy the taste of certain kinds of alcohol - red wine and dark beer - but I almost never have more than one drink, since I don't enjoy being drunk.)