Woman in need of life-saving lung transplant in Hong Kong after pregnancy complications

A woman in Hong Kong urgently needs a lung transplant after developing a potentially fatal type of high blood pressure during pregnancy, forcing her to undergo an emergency caesarean section at 29 weeks’ gestation.

The Hospital Authority appealed for a donor on Monday, revealing that the patient in Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin was in a critical condition.

The authority said it would also seek help from mainland China to see if there was a suitable donated organ.

“The Hospital Authority appeals to members of the public to actively support organ donations and consider donating the lungs of deceased relatives to give new life to others,” it said. “A lung transplant is now the patient’s only curative option.”

The woman, whose age was not revealed, first displayed signs of shortness of breath and swollen feet when she was 29 weeks’ pregnant on September 12.

She went to the hospital in Sha Tin to seek medical help, and was found to be suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension, a condition in which tiny blood vessels in the lungs become narrowed. The blood flow through the lungs was blocked and thus blood pressure in the lungs was raised.

The patient had developed gestational diabetes before and did not have other diseases.