Unable to get a suitable liver, ailing Pakistani girl returns to Oman from India

Muscat: It was a journey many in her home country Pakistan, country of residence Oman, and destination country India, anxiously followed and prayed for to become successful.
However, for the five-year-old ailing Basma, the travel ended without achieving the desired result.
First came the floods in Chennai and she and her family had to be rescued by boats from the hospital, and then came the bad news that her father could not donate his liver, which made things difficult. Then began the hunt for another liver in India.
“Despite hunting for two months, we couldn’t find any liver that would suit her. So we came back to Oman on Thursday without undergoing the liver transplantation,” her father, Mohammad Faisal Raza, a Pakistani expatriate based in Oman, told the Times of Oman.
The child needed to undergo a liver transplant as she has a cirrhotic liver.
“The child needed two surgeries — one in the liver and the other one in pancreas in India. But we managed to undergo only the pancreas surgery,” Raza said.
Raza, a Pakistani national, took Basma to India for a liver transplant as such facility was not available in Oman or back home in Pakistan.
An official from the Global Hospital in India said the Raza family had been registered for a transplant in case the hospital got a liver of the kind that would suit her.
“Meanwhile, the child was given medicines for a few months,” the hospital officials said.
The official also said the patient was admitted for complications and had undergone a few treatment procedures.
“The father of the baby was unfit as a donor. So they tried to arrange for a donor but could not,” the official said.
Raza’s elder daughter, Asfa Mohammed Faisal had died in December 6, 2004 and was also suffering from liver cirrhosis.
“At that time also, the doctors suggested a liver transplant, but we could not afford her treatment and she died,” Raza, who have been working in Sultanate of Oman since November 1991, said.
Basma has another elder sister, Aneeqa and elder brother, Mohammed Fawad, all students of Pakistan School, Nizwa. “But she is yet to start her studies because of her illness,” Raza said.