An Australian heroin addict who was refused a second liver transplant because of her continued drug use is unlikely to get another chance through the New Zealand public health service.
West Australian health authorities said 24-year-old Claire Murray was ineligible for a second transplant because she had continued to take drugs after her first transplant, which she received to treat acute liver failure caused by 12 years of amphetamine and heroin addiction.
Her father, Michael, has offered to donate a third of his own liver, if he is compatible, to save his daughter from dying within an estimated three to six months.
The West Australian government has also offered its support, agreeing to fly Ms Murray and her father to New Zealand for assessment at Auckland Hospital, which has the only adult-to-adult live donor liver transplant unit in Australasia.
But Auckland Hospital transplant consultant and chairman of the Liver Transplant Standing Committee, Stephen Munn, said Ms Murray was unlikely to be eligible for the operation here.
"The criteria for acceptance for live donor liver transplants are the same criteria for acceptance for a deceased liver transplant, and those standards are set right across Australia and New Zealand," he said.
"If she did not meet criteria for a deceased donor liver transplant in Western Australia, she would be very unlikely to meet them here."
Patients with persisting alcohol or drug abuse problems were ineligible for liver transplants on both sides of the Tasman, Prof Munn said.
While New Zealand hospitals did accept foreign transplant patients in certain rare circumstances, they first had to ensure New Zealanders were not bumped down waiting lists.
"The only place that it could take place would be in the public sector, and there would be problems with that in terms of not displacing any New Zealand patients," he said.
"They're not insurmountable, because we do do a small number of foreign national patients ... but it's not an easy business."
The surgery would have to be paid for by private insurance or the West Australian government, which has considered stumping up some of the estimated $A230,000 ($NZ296,000) cost.
New Zealand taxpayers would not have to contribute, Prof Munn said.
It was unclear if Ms Murray, who had been due to arrive in Auckland yesterday, still planned to undergo the assessment, he said.
News of Ms Murray's transplant woes has caused controversy across the Tasman, with some expressing outrage that she should be given another chance.
Others have expressed their sympathy for the a mother of two, saying nobody should have to miss out on a chance to live.
Almost 2000 Australians are on waiting lists for organ donations.
