By David Spett

At first, the entire Price family were sick, so it didn’t seem that worrisome that seven-month-old Lara was ill as well.

The Eastern Cape family - including mother Alison, father Rennie and their four children - had been away for a weekend in December, 2005.

They didn’t think anything was wrong until the Monday, when Lara was the only one still sick.

They took her to a doctor, who found an odd infection and referred her to a paediatrician.

At first, the paediatrician couldn’t find anything wrong, but after some more tests he determined that Lara’s liver and spleen were abnormally enlarged.

For a seven month old, that is not a good sign.

“They sent scans of Lara’s liver down to Red Cross Children’s Hospital and they did a liver biopsy, and from that diagnosed GSD 4,” Rennie said.

The exceptionally rare disorder, also called Andersen Disease, is officially known as glycogen storage disease type four.

Because of an enzyme defect, the liver of a GSD 4 victim has trouble transferring glycogen into glucose, causing both hypoglycaemia and cirrhosis at a young age.

Sometimes, a specialised diet can mitigate the problem, but in Lara’s case, this wasn’t enough.

A complete liver transplant is her only chance of survival.

“She is as feisty as you can imagine. She’s a real fighter. She’s a beautiful, clever, chatty little child,” Rennie said.

And so, the wait begins.

Lara must stay in Red Cross Children’s Hospital until a new liver is found, her doctors say.

Alison has moved to Cape Town to be with Lara and Rennie commutes as often as he can, usually on weekends.

The family didn’t want to speak to the media, but now, as Lara’s situation grows increasingly dire, they’ve decided to start a campaign to make the public more aware of the need for organ donors.

“Prior to Lara’s diagnosis, we hadn’t even thought of organ donation. Now we think of it all the time and wonder why we never thought of this before,” Rennie said.

“The more people you convert to becoming organ donors, the more chance you’ll ever have one if you need one yourself.”

The family says their campaign has encouraged 400 people to sign up.

To become an organ donor, visit www.odf.org.za, or call 0800 22 66 11.

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This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times on May 14, 2007 and also appeared on the IOL Website. You can view the original story HERE.

As you may have guessed from my previous posts, I am not a great fan of our Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. I disagree with almost everything she says, laugh at her stupid mistakes and am constantly embarrassed by her antics in the global community. In my opinion, she has constantly made South Africa the butt of jokes around the world, done more in her term of office to wreck the international communities opinions of South Africa and single handedly screwed up the future of thousands of my fellow South Africans. She should resign, be replaced, fired - anything to get her to go!

….. However …..

I am also a human-being and I do not like to see people suffering. So, regardless of my feelings over her political actions, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Minister Manto my best wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery from her recent illness and surgery. To her husband, ANC treasurer-general Mendi Msimang, and her family, I send my prayers and thoughts at this worrying time.

It’s refreshing to see someone taking a proper stance on the whole HIV/AIDS issue. Congratulations to Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge who recently criticized both President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on their shortcomings in dealing with the crisis.

She has always been outspoken and a voice of reason within the government and I was quite impressed with what she had to say recently. Nizizwe was recently interviewed by a British newspaper where she took issue with those who promoted traditional medicine as an alternative to regular medicine.
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