University student Yasemin Topçu has been praised for putting her education on hold to donate part of her liver in an urgent transplant to help save her 10-month-old nephew.
“My nephew has come back to life, there is no one happier in the world than me,” said the young aunt. “I couldn’t take the exams, I lost a term but I gained my nephew,”
Arife Topçu (30) and security guard Okan Topçu (31), from Datca, welcomed their son Çağatay on October 23, 2023. The baby started to turn yellow after birth and when the problem, thought to be temporary neonatal jaundice, did not go away, the couple rushed to the doctor.
The baby, who was referred from Datça to Marmaris and then to the university hospital in İzmir, had high liver enzymes in his tests. The baby was diagnosed with biliary atresia (absence of bile ducts) and underwent a cystectomy when he was 61 days old to ensure bile flow from the liver.
After this operation, the baby’s health, which was good for a few months, started to deteriorate again. A child gastroenterologist referred him to the Acıbadem Kent Hospital Liver Transplantation Department. An emergency transplantation decision was made for the baby whose condition was getting worse.
The mother, father, and uncle volunteered, but the only suitable donor among them was Yasemin. The aunt, a first-year student at the Public Administration Department of Muğla University Sıtkı Koçman University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, lay down on the transplantation table without any hesitation.
Following the transplantation performed on June 24 by the team consisting of Acıbadem Kent Hospital Liver Transplantation and Hepatic Surgery Department Founding Head Prof. Dr. Murat Kılıç, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cahit Yılmaz, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kamil Kılıç, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rasim Farajov, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mert Akan, Spec. Dr. Alihan Pirim and Spec. Dr. Özgür Bolat, baby Çağatay began to recover rapidly.
A few days after the transplant, the donor was still in intensive care for a week, and a month later, baby Çağatay was discharged with full recovery.
Prof. Dr. Murat Kılıç said: “He had very significant liver failure and growth and developmental delays when he went into the transplant. If it were not for the transplant, we would have lost him within 3 months.
“We performed the transplant under emergency conditions. As is known, cadaver donations are very few in our country. We perform living donor transplants especially for patients who cannot wait. This case is one of the most vivid examples of this.”
Arife Topçu said: “He was a baby who cried constantly day and night, never stopped. He was in pain, he was crying, but we couldn’t understand why. We had reached the point of going crazy.
“We owe our happiness to my sister-in-law, Yasemin, and our doctors. Yasemin did not take her exams to give him life. But she never said a word, she never frowned. She is now my son’s second mother,” and expressed her feelings.
Father Okan said the process had taught them a great lesson. “First of all, I would like to thank my sister who gave my son life. This process taught us an important lesson. Unfortunately, we were not even aware of the importance of donating blood before this happened to us. My wife and I will donate our organs.”
Yasemin, expressed her feelings as follows: “I was very happy when Çağatay was born. I would experience the feeling of aunthood with him for the first time. But we were very unhappy as a family since the day we learned about his illness. I felt very bad when I saw their condition.
“I will never forget the expressions on the faces of my aunt and brother when we learned that they could not be donors for the transplant. At that moment, I said, “I will donate” without thinking. I am so glad I did. It is a wonderful feeling to be able to touch someone’s life.”