Posted on 12/19/2004 2:08:29 PM PST by wagglebee
A GIRL of 20 has become the youngest person in Britain to need a new liver because of binge-drinking.
The girl, who began boozing when she was 12, was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver in hospital after collapsing following a heavy drinking session.
Her case was highlighted by expert Ian Gilmore on the eve of a conference to discuss the alarming rise in drinking among British girls. Shock figures last week showed that teenage girls are now bigger binge drinkers than boys
The girl involved told doctors at the Royal University Hospital in her home city of Liverpool that she had become a frequent binge drinker by the age of 14 and continued until she was 17. Medics found her liver was so badly damaged that she needed a new one to save her life.
A hospital source said: "She is not the sort of person you would think something like this is happening to - she's an ambitious young woman who has a good career and comes from a stable family background.
"But she admitted she had started drinking heavily from around the age of 12. She first came to us three years ago and that was when the extent of the damage to her liver, caused by too much alcohol, was discovered.
"We've been treating her since then, but her liver is too severely damaged and she will need a transplant."
The girl, who doesn't want to be identified because she's so ashamed of her condition, is the youngest-ever person in Britain to need a new liver for alcohol-related health reasons.
Doctors are trying to find out if she is physically strong enough to undergo such a major operation and she has had to be given counselling to help her cope with the trauma.
The transplant would be the same operation that former football star George Best, 58, underwent after he damaged his liver beyond repair with years of hard drinking.
Mr Gilmore, registrar of the Royal College of Physicians, says it's unusual to encounter such serious alcohol-related liver damage in the under 40s.
"But we are seeing people in their 30s or even in their 20s much more now," he said.
Mr Gilmore is due to speak at the conference in London next month which has been called to discuss the alarming rise in drinking among women.
He said the Liverpool girl's case was a good way to show others of the potential harm they were doing themselves. Last week's new binge-drinking figures came in a report called the European School Survey Project on Alcohol, which was based on a study of 100,000 boys and girls aged 15 in 35 different countries,.
It concluded that binge drinking among teenage girls had risen from 20 per cent to 29 per cent between 1995 and 2003. It also said British teenagers were among the heaviest drinkers in Europe.
Binge-drinking among young girls has increased with the rise of the so-called "ladette culture" and teenagers copying popular celebrities' boozing habits.
Didn`t he just get busted again for drugs? He was wasn`t he? I think it was for pot. Yes, he was! I just looked it up...
David Crosby Busted
March 08, 2004
David Crosby was arrested Saturday when he returned to a Times Square hotel in order to retrieve a suitcase. Found by a hotel employee after Crosby checked out of the hotel, the piece of luggage was opened during a search for an owner's name and contained a handgun, a hunting knife and an ounce of marijuana. Crosby is currently touring with CPR, the band he formed with his son, composer James Raymond, and guitarist Jeff Pevar.
Unbelievable isn`t it? The guy gets a liver transplant from years of drug abuse and here he is once again doing drugs. Reminds me of John Phllips from Tha Mamma and Pappas, he got a liver transplant as well and right after he got one he started drinking again which is why I guess he`s now dead.
I don't know why but I could care less about her needing a liver.
I'm shocked she didn't do a "Bon Scott" by now.
DYK who Keith Richards is? The devil has some power and he protects his own - for a while...
It is truly that. It is also a crying shame from two perspectives. First, some poor unfortunate had to die to make the liver available that this SOB so mindlessly and selfishly abuses. Second, this SOB needed one because of his lousy behavior and probably left another needy candidate without one, a needy candidate who lost liver function from something outside their control such as Hepatitis or congenital defect.
The same sentiments go to this poor young girl - IMO she should get one after all innocents have been served. Sorry to be such a Harda$$ but this is close to home.
I know of Irish guys who are just like Ted Kennedy. Red faces, huge guts, all the signs you listed. Drinking all the time. Yet they somehow make it to old age. I think it might be in the Irish genetics. Luck of the Irish...
I actually hung out with Keith Richards for an evening at a blues club in NY. (My friend's sister is a publicist involved somehow with Keith).
He is a really nice guy, but he was obviously an alcoholic. We spoke at length about our fathers, both of whom were ill at the time. Keith drank the entire night and chain-smoked. Some people just survive against all odds.
That sounds series cirrhosis serious.
Sounds like a stable family to me; all drunk, all the time.
(sarcasm)
SM
Holy smoke I forgot about that guy! HOW in the name of God is THAT guy still living?? To this day everytime I see him on TV or in the papaer he always has a cigarette in his hand, and only last year I saw a picture of him with a bottle of Jack Daniels! Yes maybe it`s all for show, but daaaamn, the drugs that guy did he should have went through 20 livers already! How many times has he been busted for heroin like 90 times? He looks like the crypt keeper yet there he is still going and going like the duracell bunny.
LMAO Wish I had said that!
Oh maan, I can`t believe that guy still drinks. He must have a liver made of iron or something. Or maybe he just gets a new liver every month. That`s unreal.
see post 29
This is so sad. The disease of addiction is a real mother****er.
That`s unreal, I know, everytime I see a picture of that guy he`s always smoking and I saw him with a bottle of Johnny Walker last year in one photo. And then you get stories of kids who get cancer or need new livers and no one knows how they got sick. I guess it`s all genetics, some people can never smoke and get ling cancer like Andy Kaufman and some people can chain smoke forever and never even get a cold. There was some jazz guy who just died last year, I forget his name, but he died in his late 90`s and they said he smoked heavily and drank all his life. How is that possible!?? I mean if you took a bottle of whiskey and poured it over solid granite everyday for years, even that granite will eventually start eroding, how can human tissue not?? It`s impossible!
I wasn't implying he's rotten in every way - just that the length/quality of physical life isn't under totally under our control...
I suspect Keith is blessed with good genes. His parents were of advanced age. Some folks have fragile livers, easily injured by toxins, like the young alcoholic girl and most Native Americans.
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