Parents of twins with Alagille syndrome in public plea for liver donor after discovering father is a match – but can only donate to one child

Ontario doctors will have to choose which twin to save if a donor is not found

Binh and Phuoc Wagner, who have Alagille syndrome and who both need a liver transplant to survive (Wagner family/Facebook )

The Canadian parents of three-year-old twin girls who are both suffering from Alagille syndrome have made a public plea for a liver donor after they discovered they are able to save one of their daughters but not the other.

The girls are both suffering from a genetic disorder that can affect the liver, heart and other systems within the body, and they both need liver transplants in order to survive.

Michael Wagner, of Kingston, Ontario, is a liver match for his adopted daughters, Binh and Phuoc, but he is only able to donate to one of them.

“We need people to come forward, people who are willing to be assessed to be liver donors,” wife Johanne Wagner told CBC news. “Things could turn around very quickly on us and their condition could get worse.”

Post by Liver Transplants for our Vietnamese Twin Girls.

The Wagners, who have seven other children, knew the girls were ill before they travelled to Vietnam in 2012 to meet them, where they found the twins weighed nine pounds at age 18 months.

Both of the girls’ conditions have advanced so far that there are no other options open to them other than a live liver transplant according to doctors, who will have to choose which twin is given a new liver if a second donor is not found.

On a dedicated Facebook page, the family state that the girls are both listed on the liver transplant list waiting for a life-saving operation at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and have outlined the requirements for any potential live donors, as “it could take a long time for livers from deceased donors to come their way”.

The family hope to find the second donor within a month, and for the twins to undergo the surgery around the same time.