Daryl loses battle for liver

After rallying for more than a year with the hope of having transplant surgery, 28-year-old liver failure patient Daryl St Cyr died yesterday at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH). St Cyr’s family, of Churchill Circular, Arima, and members of his United Pentecostal Church in San Juan have been lobbying since last year to raise money for him to have liver transplant surgery at Hospital Univeristario Austral in Argentina. St Cyr had been diagnosed with sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease characterised by inflammation, destruction and fibrosis of the bile ducts which lead to cirrhosis of the liver. His mother, Annette, told Newsday that he was taken to the PoSGH last Thursday in a very weak state and unable to stand on his own. On Sunday he was vomiting, had lost his appetite and was only able to sip fluids because “he could not swallow” properly. St Cyr also had jaundice.

Annette said she received news that his kidneys had failed on Sunday. She went to the hospital at 6.30 am yesterday to discover that Daryl had died ten minutes earlier. “God and Dr Bartholomew helped Daryl. She really tried to help him,” Annette said of Dr Maria Bartholomew, consultant gastroenterologist at PoSGH. Annette said it is hard coping with the death, but her son had gone to meet his maker. She said before becoming bedridden, St Cyr was very active and independent. He was “a young minister,” a former employee of the Trinidad Guardian, Customs, and BWIA. His illness made him unable to keep a job for a long period of time. “He was always a fighter, when he got well he worked. Even when he was ill he tried to do things for himself.” Funeral arrangements are being made for St Cyr.

On January 16, Health Minister John Rahael initiated discussion with Argentine Ambassador Jose Luis Vignolo with the aim of establishing an agreement to help locals get liver transplant surgery in Argentina at a reduced cost. Rahael yesterday said he hoped to get feedback before the end of the week. Notified of St Cyr’s death, Rahael said he was “sorry.” He was informed that St Cyr did not have a donor who was compatible, and said one of the most difficult organs to get compatibility for was the liver. “Anyone who needs a liver transplant, and we are assured that a donor is compatible, every effort will be made to get them to Argentina to have the surgery done,” Rahael said.