Man, 22, Dies After Liver Transplant Refused
YAHOO NEWS
UK,
July 21, 2009
A 22-year-old alcoholic has died after being refused a life-saving liver transplant because he was
too ill to leave hospital and prove he could stay sober.
Gary Reinbach, who died in hospital on Monday from a severe case of liver cirrhosis, did not qualify
for a donor liver under strict NHS rules.
The alcoholic, from Dagenham, Essex, had admitted binge drinking since he was 13 but was only
taken to hospital for the first time with liver problems 10 weeks ago.
He was never discharged.
His mother Madeline Hanshaw, 44, said: "These rules are really unfair."
She told the Evening Standard: "I'm not saying you should give a transplant to someone who is in
and out of hospital all the time and keeps damaging themselves, but just for people like Gary, who
made a mistake and never got a second chance."
She said he was "desperate to recover" but had deteriorated quickly.
There has not really been much research into younger people's drinking and the effects that is having on health in this country.
Mr Reinbach's family said he had started drinking aged 11 when his parents split up and drank heavily from the age of 13.
He had recently tried to give up and had signed up for support group Alcoholics Anonymous just weeks before he was taken into hospital, they said.
His brother Luke, 18, told the Evening Standard: "They never gave him the chance to show he could change."
Mr Reinbach died at University College Hospital, London.
A hospital spokeswoman said: "Our sympathies are with his family at this time."
Campaign group Alcohol Concern says it is worried a rise in teenage drinking will lead to more people suffering alcohol-related illnesses at younger ages.
"There has not really been much research into younger people's drinking and the effects that is having on health in this country," said a spokeswoman.
She said a study in the US had shown children who begin drinking before they reach 15 are more likely to become alcohol dependent.
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