A father of twin girls in Ontario, Canada has started a passionate campaign to find a suitable liver donor for one of his daughters in order to save her life.
According to ABC News, three-year-old twins Binh and Phuoc Wagner suffer from Alagille syndrome. This is a condition that affects the functioning of the bile ducts and, over time, damages the liver severely. The two girls need to undergo a liver tissue transplant to get rid of the disease.
The father, Michael Wagner, had already passed the donor test and will be donating liver tissue to one of the twins. Doctors will need to determine which of the twins is in more urgent need to ascertain who the recipient of Wagner's liver tissue should be.
The two twins, who are Vietnamese, were adopted by the Wagners in 2012, despite being fully aware of their frail conditions. "We knew they were very ill," their mother, Johanne Wagner, said. "Those girls knocked on our doors and they were supposed to be with us ... As soon as we heard about them, we knew they were they were part of our family."
The Wagner twins were put on a transplant list last year when their conditions worsened. Tests carried out afterwards showed that Michael was a suitable donor but, for medical reasons, can only donate to one of the girls.
The Wagner family then turned to popular social media sites in the hopes of reaching out and finding a compatible second donor. Johanne told ABC News that the response was massive, as hundreds of Facebook users began "flooding" her account with offers to become donors.
All volunteers were directed to the Living Donor Assessment Office of the Toronto General Hospital for screening.
Times may be difficult for their family, but Johanne remains optimistic about the twins' plight. "We would travel this road all over again," she told ABC News.
