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Pang Kwok-cheung says he is reborn after attack victim's family donates organ

The brutal killing of a jewellery shop worker last week has given a new life to three people, including a liver patient who had only three months to live.

Relatives of Lee Yik-lam, 52, who died last Friday from injuries suffered in an attack in Hung Hom a day earlier, decided to donate his liver and kidneys for transplant.

'I was reborn, I have a new life,' one of the patients, Pang Kwok-cheung, said yesterday after a liver transplant on Saturday.

'The donor was such a kind-hearted person, he gave people lives. I felt very sorry for what happened to him but  I thank him and his family so much,' he said.

The 49-year-old father of two, a former delivery worker, has been out of work for two years after suffering from recurrent cholangitis, inflammation of the bile ducts that  leads to liver failure.

He, his wife and two sons aged five and 14, live on welfare.

Lo Chung-mau,  surgery professor on the University of Hong Kong's liver transplant team, said one in two patients in Mr Pang's condition stand to die within three months if they do not receive a transplant.

Professor Lo said a member of his team went to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where Lee died, at 4am on Saturday to get the liver and started the nine-hour operation on Mr Pang in Queen Mary Hospital at 6am.

'It is a very encouraging case. We hope that more people will donate their organs after death,' Professor Lo said.

He said he wanted to send a message to Lee's wife that her husband lived on.

'I want to tell his wife that her husband is still alive, he is living in three people's bodies. It is the best way to continue his life.'

Mr Pang still looked tired and yellow yesterday. His face and arms were mud-coloured, as is typical  in end-stage liver patients, but his eyes carried a ray of hope.

'I was thrilled when I was told by medical staff on Friday that I would have a new liver.

'I had been waiting for that moment for two years,' he said.

As a result of his condition he  was always tired and suffered  from abdominal pain.  Fluid that accumulated in his body made him look like a pregnant woman.

Lee was attacked by four men as he wheeled  ornaments  worth  HK$400,000 out of Hung Hom station  eight days ago.  He died 31 hours after the attack.

Professor Lo said  Lee's blood type was the same as Mr Pang's - AB, a type rare among Hong Kong Chinese.  He said about 140 patients, including eight with the AB blood type, were waiting for liver transplants in Hong Kong.

'Not everyone is as lucky as Mr Pang,' he said.

'About half our patients die on the waiting list because the organ donation rate remains very low in Hong Kong.'

Police yesterday charged a fourth man - a 24-year-old illegal immigrant surnamed Lau - with  murder in connection with Lee's death.



'A new life' with liver from slain man