College entrance exam time is one of the highest pressure periods in a person's lifetime.

 

So spare a thought for the student who has just recovered from liver-transplant surgery who is taking part in the exams, which began yesterday.

 

Doctors from Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital went all way to the student's home town in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, on Wednesday to ensure he is healthy and strong enough to join the tests.

 

After giving him a checkup, doctors accompanied the student, only identified by his surname of Shen, to the examination room yesterday morning.

 

The 18-year-old student went to Ruijin Hospital with an abnormal liver function that he has endured since the age of five years old. As his liver function worsened tests in Wenzhou could not provide a diagnosis.

 

Ruijin Hospital doctors confirmed that Shen had Wilson's disease, a genetic disorder where the liver does not release copper into bile. The syndrome is fatal unless detected and treated before serious illness from copper poisoning develops.

 

"Wilson's disease causes excessive copper accumulation in the liver or brain, resulting in liver failure or nervous-system problems like tremors, twitches and poorer intelligence," said Dr Shen Baiyong from Ruijin Hospital's hepasurgery department and the patient's main surgeon.

 

"If he had not received a liver transplant quickly, he would have suffered liver failure and dies in his 20s."

 

Doctors conducted the transplant surgery on April 26 after Shen's cousin donated a part of his liver.

 

The surgery was successful and Shen is expected to remain healthy as the transplanted organ has an effective copper-releasing function, doctors said.

 

The incidence of Wilson's disease is about one in every 30,000 and people will die before the age of 30 if they do not receive appropriate treatment.

 

"People should monitor if a child or a youngster has symptoms like shaking and a sudden poor academic performance without reason," said Dr Shen.

 

(Shanghai Daily June 8, 2007)