LAHORE, Feb 9: A 10-year-old boy, the only son of a poor worker, died of liver failure at the Liver Unit of Children’s Hospital, a source told Dawn on Thursday.

Rizwan was suffering from Wilson’s disease and had been admitted to the hospital for the last two months with liver failure.

Rizwan’s death has heightened the agony of the families of 20 other critically ill children at the Liver Unit suffering from the disease.

According to doctors, the only remedy for these children is liver transplant -- a procedure that is not available in the country yet.

Rizwan’s father Asghar Ali, a resident of Ittehad Colony, Sahiwal, had sold every thing to arrange Rs4 million, the cost of liver transplant in India. The department’s senior doctors, including Prof Dr Huma Arshad Cheema, also contacted philanthropists to meet the expenses for Rizwan’s liver transplant in the neighbouring country and their efforts in this regard were under way when the boy died.

Rizwan’s death also poses a challenge to health authorities which have so far failed to make available liver transplant facility locally as this procedure was being routinely done in neighbouring countries like India and China.

Prof Dr Huma Arshad Cheema, head of the Liver Unit, told Dawn Wilson’s disease was a rare inherited disorder that caused the body to retain copper. “Wilson disease or hepatolenticular degeneration is a genetic disorder in which copper accumulates in tissues,” she said, adding that too much copper could damage kidneys, liver, brain and eyes.