A dying Canadian liver patient who had no hope of being treated in his home country flew all the way to Hong Kong and was successfully given a second lease of life in an operation conducted by the city’s top transplant experts.

Mike Watson, 39, father of three, suffered from a sudden and massive internal hemorrhage in December which led to a serious condition called hepatorenal syndrome – which can kill within three months.

He was told by doctors in Vancouver that he would need a liver transplant, but he would have to wait six months.

There was a point where he and his wife, Lisa Watson, began to think about a funeral rather than the future. Friends then suggested an alternative – an organ donation from a living donor.

“There are a lot of people willing to become a donor, but the doctors in Canada told us Mike was too sick to undergo such surgery,” Lisa said.

“They wouldn’t even give us a survival rate. A donation would be risky to both the patient and the donor. Doctors simply would not conduct the transplant as the rate of success was too low,” she said.

That was when Mike’s family and friends began to search out overseas transplant centres. They focused on Hong Kong and Taiwan. The latter proved to take longer for an organ, while a friend who had contacts in Hong Kong put them in touch with Queen Mary Hospital.The organ transplant team led by University of Hong Kong professor Lo Chung-mau told the couple Mike had an 80 per cent chance of surviving if he received a new liver from a live donor.

Seven days later, the couple flew over from Canada, along with a nurse and medical equipment that kept Mike alive, as well as a group of family members, friends and even a neighbour – all of whom were willing to be a donor.

It turned out that the Pok Fu Lam hospital’s organ transplant board believed Lisa was the best candidate, and the operation went ahead on March 1.

The right side of Lisa’s liver – totalling two-thirds of the entire organ – was removed and transplanted into Mike, whose own liver had deteriorated to such an extent that it could no longer function.

Both operations – around eight hours for Lisa and 12 hours for Mike – proved successful.

There were no signs of any complications, while the rest of Lisa’s liver grew in size to the extent that she regained her strength, Lo said on Sunday. He thought the couple could be discharged in days.

Without a transplant, Lo believed the patient would almost certainly have died.

Lo is a pioneer who made liver donations from live donors possible in 1996.

It was previously thought that living donors could only give a left lobe without risking their own life, but the graft would be too small for most adult recipients.

We have to rely on live donation to save lives, but Canada does not have a very long history of live donations

Lo’s team has since performed thousands of live liver donations in Hong Kong.

“Unlike Hong Kong, Canada has a much better rate of organ donation from deceased donors,” Lo said.

“We have to rely on live donation to save lives, but Canada does not have a very long history of live donations.”

Lo said the survival rate for those receiving livers from living people was over 90 per cent for his team.

The rate was good enough to convince the Watsons to fly all the way to Hong Kong for the treatment, for which they paid HK$1.5 million to the public hospital as they were not locals.

Mike, who had previously visited Hong Kong only once on a day trip, said he had never thought this city could be the place where he would get a new life.

“If I were still in BC [British Columbia, Canada], I would be dead by now,” Mike said in Queen Mary Hospital on Sunday evening.

“It was tough. But I have a family and three kids. I need to try anything.”

Lisa said they had written their wills before they departed for Hong Kong, not knowing whether Mike would return again.

Mike, who works in the wine industry, did not get to give his children a proper farewell before he left as he was too weak and they had flu.

“We can now face our children and say we did everything we could and we succeeded, and these are the people who made that possible,” Lisa said emotionally.

Lo said his team should thank the couple for their trust, which was strong enough that they flew half way round the globe to place their lives in the hands of someone they had never met in a place about which they knew little.

Lo said: “Twenty years ago, Hong Kong used to send children to Australia for liver transplant operations. We used to be helped by others. And now we are at a point where we can help others. We should help to save life.”