A Kingston, Ont. father says his twin daughters are recovering well after receiving life-saving liver transplants two months apart.
Binh Wagner, 3, underwent surgery on Monday and is “doing very, very well,” the girls’ father Michael Wagner told CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday.
Binh and her twin sister Phuoc have Alagille syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects vital organs. Doctors said the toddlers would die without a liver transplant.
The family’s story made headlines around the world when the family learned that Michael’s liver was a match, but that he would only be able to help one of his daughters.
On doctors’ advice, Michael donated part of his liver to Phuoc. The family then took to the Internet with a plea for a second donor.
On Monday, the family announced that a stranger had stepped forward to save Binh’s life. The day after Binh’s surgery, her parents thanked the donor at an emotional news conference.
"Thank you for your unselfishness for what you've done," mother Johanne Wagner said through tears, as she held one of her daughters in her arms. "There's no other word than ‘thank you.’"
The donor has chosen to remain anonymous even to the family, but Michael said he’d “give him a big hug” if they ever met.
“This person is a hero to me. They’ve given a gift that you can never repay and I’m so forever, eternally grateful for what they’ve done,” Michael said.
Michael said Phuoc is at home in Kingston, while Binh is being monitored at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
“(Binh’s) complications are pretty standard for a liver transplant. She just needs that specialized care that is only offered at Sick Kids,” he said.
“She’s stable, she’s healthy and we’re expecting her to be released from Sick Kids hopefully sometime early next week.”
After her release, Binh and her father will stay at a nearby Ronald McDonald House for two weeks for frequent follow-up appointments with her doctors.
Michael and Johanne are urging Canadians to register for organ donation and encourage their families to do the same. Michael said that if more people were registered it wouldn’t have been such a struggle for the family to find a living donor.
“The need is so great in Ontario and across Canada that we have to get people to go to their provincial webpages, register and tell their families,” he said.
“We see the change that it has made. My daughters now are healthy little girls.”
