Published
Video length: 4 min
Organ donation: Côme, 3 years old, awaits his liver transplant
June 22 is organ donation day. If 80% of French people are in favor of donating in practice, only 47% talk about it to their loved ones. In France, 272 children are waiting for a donor. This is the case of Côme, aged 3.
(France 2)
June 22 is organ donation day. If 80% of French people are in favor of donating in practice, only 47% talk about it to their loved ones. In France, 272 children are waiting for a donor. This is the case of Côme, aged 3.
Côme, almost 3 years old, is learning to tackle, dodge, score, with his rugby player dad, Henry Chavancy, star of Racing 92. Under his jersey, Côme is sick. He has been waiting for a liver transplant for 14 months. “It’s a long wait, obviously. Sometimes we see him suffer, it hurts our heart“, confides his dad. Côme has to take more than 20 medications a day. His jaundice causes terrible itching, a yellow complexion and stunted growth. A liver transplant is essential.
Several times a month, head to the hospital. In recent days, his jaundice has worsened, Côme has a very bad stomach ache. For her mother, Magali Chavancy, there is an emergency. Nearly four out of 10 French families refuse organ donation. Children waiting for transplants suffer the repercussions. “An adult whose family agrees to him being a donor can save an adult and a child with his liver“, specifies hepatologist Oanez Ackermann. Like Como, in France, 272 children are waiting for a kidney, a lung or a heart.
