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Alcohol, death and the case of 19-year-old Gareth Anderson

  • 21-08-2009 3:03pm
    #1
    Rebelheart
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,077 ✭✭✭


    Did anybody hear the interview Éamon Keane had with Brian Anderson on Newstalk today at 12.40pm?

    It was the most moving interview I've heard in a long, long time.

    Brian Anderson owns a small building company in Newtownards and he was on because he was told this week that his 19-year-old son, Gareth Anderson, has just 2-3 weeks left to live.

    Gareth had gone on a drinking binge with his friends from last Friday until Sunday and was rushed to hospital after it in huge pain. The hospital quickly diagnosed that Gareth had liver failure and tried to get him a liver transplant immediately. However, the hospital in London where he was supposed to be flown to get the transplant has made it very clear that they will not give him one because, under current UK law, he has to have abstained from alcohol for 6 months.

    His father was fighting back the tears at this point saying that there was never any hint that Gareth had a liver problem and that his son is only 19 years old. His son is not, he was at pains to emphasise, in the same category as lifetime abusers of drink such as George Best. Given this and the fact that his son has only 2 weeks to live, Brian Anderson was appealing to the hospital to overlook the 6 month alcohol-free period. Towards the end of the interview Brian Anderson mentioned that if he didn't get the transplant, he would have to tell Gareth next Monday that he is going to die. Really poignant stuff.

    I think an exception should definitely be made here to what is otherwise a probably good law. The kid is 19 years old for God's sake, not 49 and drinking for 20 years. He had never been warned about liver damage and he had no prior history of it.

    Here are some articles I found on it, including photos of Gareth:

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0821/1224253026787.html

    http://www.irishnews.com/appnews/540/5860/2009/8/21/625529_391286528842Fathertol.html

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8211572.stm

    http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0820/andersong.html

    You can hear the podcast of the interview here:

    http://www.newstalk.ie/newstalk/podcasts.html
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