[NYCFarmboy]

GIRL WHO BOOZED AT 12 NEEDS NEW LIVER AT 20

Dec 19 2004

Doctors say a transplant is the only way to save her.
By Matthew Bell

A GIRL of 20 has become the youngest person in Britain to need a new liver because of binge-drinking.

The girl, who began boozing when she was 12, was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver in hospital after collapsing following a heavy drinking session.

Her case was highlighted by expert Ian Gilmore on the eve of a conference to discuss the alarming rise in drinking among British girls. Shock figures last week showed that teenage girls are now bigger binge drinkers than boys

The girl involved told doctors at the Royal University Hospital in her home city of Liverpool that she had become a frequent binge drinker by the age of 14 and continued until she was 17. Medics found her liver was so badly damaged that she needed a new one to save her life.

A hospital source said: "She is not the sort of person you would think something like this is happening to - she's an ambitious young woman who has a good career and comes from a stable family background.

"But she admitted she had started drinking heavily from around the age of 12. She first came to us three years ago and that was when the extent of the damage to her liver, caused by too much alcohol, was discovered.

"We've been treating her since then, but her liver is too severely damaged and she will need a transplant."

The girl, who doesn't want to be identified because she's so ashamed of her condition, is the youngest-ever person in Britain to need a new liver for alcohol-related health reasons.

Doctors are trying to find out if she is physically strong enough to undergo such a major operation and she has had to be given counselling to help her cope with the trauma.

The transplant would be the same operation that former football star George Best, 58, underwent after he damaged his liver beyond repair with years of hard drinking.

Mr Gilmore, registrar of the Royal College of Physicians, says it's unusual to encounter such serious alcohol-related liver damage in the under 40s.

"But we are seeing people in their 30s or even in their 20s much more now," he said.

Mr Gilmore is due to speak at the conference in London next month which has been called to discuss the alarming rise in drinking among women.

He said the Liverpool girl's case was a good way to show others of the potential harm they were doing themselves. Last week's new binge-drinking figures came in a report called the European School Survey Project on Alcohol, which was based on a study of 100,000 boys and girls aged 15 in 35 different countries,.

It concluded that binge drinking among teenage girls had risen from 20 per cent to 29 per cent between 1995 and 2003. It also said British teenagers were among the heaviest drinkers in Europe.

Binge-drinking among young girls has increased with the rise of the so-called "ladette culture" and teenagers copying popular celebrities' boozing habits.


-LAST year 29 per cent of 15 and 16-year-old UK girls admitted binge-drinking, compared to 26 per cent of boys that age.


-THE highest rate of alcoholism in females is among those aged 16 to 19.


-THE average girl will have her first taste of alcohol at 13. Boys will have their first drink at 11.


http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/n...name_page.html
_

[Peter]

but drinking is cool as when you get drunk you can have fun! lame.

[ism]

Where were all these boozy free girls when I was a teenager? Oh that's it - I didn't start drinking 'til I was 18.

Moral of the story: Start drinking early. You'll only regret it otherwise.

[Super Nova]

[removed pointless oversize inline image --tooki]

SuperNova

[placebo1969]

Woah! That looks like me when I was that kid's age.

[Super Nova]

mmm, perhaps you don't remember...

SuperNova

[NYCFarmboy]

the drunk girl's kitten could not be reached for comment.

[Mafia]

i wonder what their definition of binge drinking is.

[spiky_dog]

for the record: the mirror is a uk tabloid...

what is interesting is that google news seems to indicate that a 17 year in similar straits exists. unfortunately the only source for this second article is the scotsman, which is also a tabloid at least in paper format if not intent.

here's another article about the study showing binge drinking's prevalence among girls: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/ma...7/nbinge15.xml . note the lack of reference to 17 or 20 year old girls with failing livers.

[Lancer409]

i think she DESERVES a liver transplant.


Add her to the END of the list of patients waiting for a liver.

[tooki]

I'm not sure that someone who self-inflicted such catastrophic damage to her body deserves to get a new organ. Not when there are others who need organs due to disease that's not caused by bad judgement.

I mean, that girl showed really bad judgement over a very long period of time. If she gets a new liver, she's just gonna ruin it, too.

tooki

[Edit: P.S. Lancer409: I started writing this before you posted; it's not a response to your post! :-P]

[d4nth3m4n]

Originally posted by tooki:
I'm not sure that someone who self-inflicted such catastrophic damage to her body deserves to get a new organ. Not when there are others who need organs due to disease that's not caused by bad judgement.

I mean, that girl showed really bad judgement over a very long period of time. If she gets a new liver, she's just gonna ruin it, too.

tooki

[Edit: P.S. Lancer409: I started writing this before you posted; it's not a response to your post! :-P]

i'm not sure that the teenage years count as a very long time to have clouded judgment. i'm willing to bet that all the other alcoholics on the liver waiting list were drinking heavily for more than 8 years.

[bstone]

With the advances in stem cell research soon the need for a donor liver will become obsolete. However, that is many years away (hopefully sooner than we think).

Also, would the perfection of stem cell research to grow new organs just increase the numbers of those who are alcoholics? "I can drink all I want and they'll just grow me a new liver! Har har har!"

Hmm.....

[ASIMO]

Originally posted by tooki:
I'm not sure that someone who self-inflicted such catastrophic damage to her body deserves to get a new organ. Not when there are others who need organs due to disease that's not caused by bad judgement.

I mean, that girl showed really bad judgement over a very long period of time. If she gets a new liver, she's just gonna ruin it, too.

tooki

[Edit: P.S. Lancer409: I started writing this before you posted; it's not a response to your post! :-P]

It would be nice to know where her parents/guardians were for those first six years (unsure of UK's drinking age).

At any rate, this is prime reason why I always hit the harder stuff: most bang for the buck...er, ounce, at least.

[tooki]

Originally posted by d4nth3m4n:
i'm not sure that the teenage years count as a very long time to have clouded judgment. i'm willing to bet that all the other alcoholics on the liver waiting list were drinking heavily for more than 8 years.

That wasn't just mildly clouded judgement. It was systematic disregard. She knew that what she was doing was harmful. (Well, at least I don't know how you couldn't know.)

Yes, the other alcoholics no doubt started drinking young, but they still didn't drink so much as to ruin their livers in just 5 years.

And besides, look at all the millions of teens who have the good sense to not kill their livers. Teens have enough smarts to know about this.

tooki

P.S. REALLY good question, about the parents. Chances are it's their generous allowance that funded the drinking. Either that, or the parents' own liquor cabinet.

[Lancer409]

nah
... i thought i was invincible back then. figuring that being young, i'd be more immune to diseases and so fourth. besides, i'm sure peer pressure is stronger during teen years

[drive-thru]

ASIMO - the legal UK drinking age is 18, but when drinking within the home it's pretty much up to the parents' discretion, or lack thereof.

I had a feeling this story would be from the UK when I opened the thread. Binge drinking (drinking large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time, like Friday & Saturday nights) seems to be a growing problem here.
I don't know if this is just a UK problem, or something which is on the increase across the world and the UK is at the top of the statistics. I was always under the impression that countries like France, with a more relaxed attitude to alcohol, didn't really have this problem. Is this still the case?

I think the problem in the UK is that we have an attitude that on Friday and Saturday nights of "let's go out and get wasted!" People seem to be going out to drink with their friends in order to have a good time, but don't care whether or not they remember what a 'good time' they had in the morning.

[Goldfinger]

Originally posted by drive-thru:
ASIMO - the legal UK drinking age is 18, but when drinking within the home it's pretty much up to the parents' discretion, or lack thereof.

I had a feeling this story would be from the UK when I opened the thread. Binge drinking (drinking large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time, like Friday & Saturday nights) seems to be a growing problem here.
I don't know if this is just a UK problem, or something which is on the increase across the world and the UK is at the top of the statistics. I was always under the impression that countries like France, with a more relaxed attitude to alcohol, didn't really have this problem. Is this still the case?

I think the problem in the UK is that we have an attitude that on Friday and Saturday nights of "let's go out and get wasted!" People seem to be going out to drink with their friends in order to have a good time, but don't care whether or not they remember what a 'good time' they had in the morning.

France does not have a relaxed attitude against younger people drinking. I remeber getting a glass of wine when I was like 11 at Christmas when I went to France, to my French side of the family, and they were totally shocked. Now if you want a relaxed attitudo to alchohol then come to Belgium

And it's normal that young people get completely wasted on saturdays and fridays, during the week they aren't allowed to go out, simple as that.

And ya, you don't need any ID to buy booze here. (don't know if you have to in theory) Which is good IMO. Well educated children do not abuse this privilige only the very few badly educated ones do.

[Nivag]

yeah, drinking loads on Friday & Saturdays is saaad and only for amateurs. only the real drinkers get mashed in the week!

[mitchell_pgh]

What a sad story... Binge drinking (at such a young age) was sure to kill a maturing liver...

[Randman]

[Deleted oversized, unnecessarily-put-into-quotes image. --tooki]

Fixed.

[wdlove]

A very sad story. Hopefully she will get a liver, but will need a heavy dose of Alcoholics Anonymous also.

[spiky_dog]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
What a sad story... Binge drinking (at such a young age) was sure to kill a maturing liver...

the stories about the 17- and 20-year-olds were both from tabloids. "real" newspapers didn't have mention of these young girls in need of transplants. thus THEY PROBABLY DON'T EXIST. your collective strings are being pulled by the tabloid machine

[Amorya]

Originally posted by drive-thru:
ASIMO - the legal UK drinking age is 18, but when drinking within the home it's pretty much up to the parents' discretion, or lack thereof.

18 to buy.

4 (or is it 5? can't remember) to consume in own home.

It's entirely possible she did nothing illegal. Not very probable, but possible! However, the parents could probably be got for negligence if they were in full knowledge of the amount she was drinking.


Amorya

[Sherwin]

FUD. Our government is on an anti-drink campaign at the moment - and these stories always seem to appear just when the government needs them to (convenient, eh?).

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by tooki:
I'm not sure that someone who self-inflicted such catastrophic damage to her body deserves to get a new organ. Not when there are others who need organs due to disease that's not caused by bad judgement.

I mean, that girl showed really bad judgement over a very long period of time.

By that logic, people who have heart disease from smoking shouldn't get angioplasty, etc.

If she gets a new liver, she's just gonna ruin it, too.

Often true... and often false. Anyways, in certain jurisdictions, one must demonstrate a certain period of being "clean" before getting the transplant. Not sure what the practice is in the UK though.

[tooki]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
By that logic, people who have heart disease from smoking shouldn't get angioplasty, etc.

Angioplasty doesn't require the use of a donated organ. Since donated organs are in short supply, I don't see the sense in giving them to people who have demonstrated recklessness with caring for their first set of organs.

Angioplasty? Sure. Lung transplant? Bottom of the list.

tooki

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by tooki:
Angioplasty doesn't require the use of a donated organ. Since donated organs are in short supply, I don't see the sense in giving them to people who have demonstrated recklessness with caring for their first set of organs.

Angioplasty? Sure. Lung transplant? Bottom of the list.

Angioplasty in some areas is in short supply. It's even worse for bypass surgery.

Anyways, most centres have moved beyond such unnecessary moral snobbery. What's in the past is in the past. The key is what is in the future. In many places if a team decides that the person will continue to drink heavily and damage the transplanted liver, then usually that person doesn't get the liver. However, if the person is reformed and has shown the ability to abstain and lead a more healthy lifestyle, then that person is give the chance for a transplant.

Seems quite fair to me.