Hannah Lendor, the nine-year-old girl who left last month for Argentina to undergo a life-saving liver transplant is yet to have the surgery done.
According to a source close to the family, the transplant had to be put off as, up to last Friday, the blood pressure of Hannah's donor, her mother Arlene Lendor, was too high. Hannah, her mother, as well as her sister, Nadia, and brother, Joel, left for Argentina's Privado de Hospital de Ninos on February 2. The family was hopeful the surgery would have been done a few days after arrival.
Following the surgery Hannah is expected to remain in Argentina with her family for about four to five months to be closely observed by doctors. If the surgery is performed before the end of this month the Sea Lots family should be home by August. Little Hannah has been ill since the age of six years but it was only early last year doctors in Caracas diagnosed her with advanced liver cirrhosis.
The disease brought on an ailment known as hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) which resulted in Hannah depending on an oxygen machine to survive. The surgery was set to be performed in Caracas for $1.3 million but the family was able to source a cheaper price–US$80,000–at the hospital in Argentina. With the help of the public, Government and private companies the Lendors were able to raise close to $1.4 million in a four-month period.
