Home News Birmingham News
Kidney boy 'feeling fine' after op
Mar 6 2008 By Jasbir Authi, Birmingham Mail
A TEENAGER given the gift of life by his father today declared: "I'm feeling fine."
Felix Yeboah, aged 14, from Ghana, received a kidney from his dad, Michael, in a seven-hour operation at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Felix had been given only months to live after being struck with kidney failure. The operation was done on Sunday by transplant consultant Andrew Ready and 19 other doctors who had given up their free time after hearing about Felix's plight.
Michael, a 45-year-old pastor who is married to Comfort aged 42, said: "I feel happy and relieved after the operation. There's pain, the cuts hurt but not too much.
"It wasn't difficult for me to donate because Felix is my son and I had to help him."
Dr Ready, who set up Transplant Links with colleagues to help train doctors in the developing world to carry out life-saving organ swaps, was on a mercy mission from Birmingham to West Africa last year, when he was moved to tears by the Felix's plight.
He said: "We didn't go to Ghana with the intention of finding someone like Felix to bring back for an operation, he sort of found us.
"I'm quite a hardened surgeon but when I saw him, I was quite moved."
Both Felix and Michael are making good progress and will spend the next eight weeks recovering at the hospital, while they are supported by the city's Ghanaian community.
Copyright and Trade Mark Notice © 2009 owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Midlands Limited. Birmingham Mail™ is a trade mark of Trinity Mirror Midlands Limited. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement before using this site.