Baby Azra

Baby Azra

Two-year-old Azra Sağır, who is being treated in İzmir, received liver transplants from her father Veli Sağır at the age of 6 months and from her maternal uncle Enes Ünlü at 22 months.

Sabriye (27) and Veli Sağır (43), who live in Giresun, were overjoyed on 16 May 2017 when their daughter Azra was born. But when Azra was only 6 days old, her mother noticed that the colour of the baby's stool was not normal and became suspicious. The couple rushed to the emergency department of the state hospital. The doctor, noting that the baby, who had begun to develop jaundice, might have no bile ducts, referred Azra to Trabzon. Tests carried out there led to a diagnosis of “biliary atresia” (congenital absence of the bile ducts) for Azra. Azra underwent a Kasai operation at 35 days old to open a bile pathway, but she was told that she could regain her health only through a liver transplant. The Sağır couple left their jobs and everything behind and came to Kent Hospital in İzmir for the transplant. Tests carried out there showed that the father, Mr. Sağır, was a suitable donor, and the transplant was performed on 15 November 2017 by a team made up of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Kılıç, Op. Dr. Cahit Yılmaz, Op. Dr. Kamil Kılıç, Op. Dr. Rasim Farajov and Op. Dr. Zaza Iakobadze.

Azra began a new life with the liver tissue transplanted from her father Veli Sağır. So as not to keep shuttling between Giresun and İzmir, the couple rented a home in İzmir and began living there. After the transplant, Azra recovered quickly and began to grow. While everything was going well, little Azra began to turn yellow again. It turned out that her body was rejecting the organ, and they had to start over. Her maternal uncle Enes Ünlü volunteered for the second transplant. This transplant was carried out by the same team 16 months after the first one, on 22 March 2019. For the second time, the doors of a new life opened for Azra. As she began to walk, Azra, with her charm and a fighting spirit that puts adults to shame, became the darling of the Liver Transplantation Clinic. Veli Sağır, noting that his daughter had undergone liver tissue transplant surgery twice, 16 months apart, said: “When it became clear that I could be a donor, I developed a blood pressure problem; I went on a diet, dropping from 90 kilos to 75, and then lay down on the operating table. Just when we thought everything was going wonderfully, we found ourselves back in the transplant process. My brother-in-law became my daughter's hero, and thanks to him she began a new life. We thank both him and our doctors very much. Azra has recovered, and now we are returning home. The world is one thing, Azra is another. We came to see that all the hardships and trials we went through in these two years were sacred. Once the result was good, we forgot all of it, and it was gone.” Her maternal uncle Enes Ünlü, noting that he had also volunteered for Azra at the first transplant, said: “Azra is everything to us. We would give our lives for her. My only wish is for Azra to grow up healthy.” Giving information about the condition of Azra, who has packed two organ transplants into her two years of life, Op. Dr. Yılmaz said: “Azra has left the hard days behind. Seeing Azra and babies like her grow up healthy is our greatest source of happiness.”