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.
Wow - she really outdid herself with this.
Perhaps she can get in Guinness' Book of Records?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.