Help save Baby Maxy: Urgent funds needed for liver transplant

KUCHING (March 1): While other babies his age are learning to grasp their mother’s finger and respond with innocent giggles, little Maxy Perez is fighting a battle his fragile body should never have to endure.

Born in Kuching, Maxy has been diagnosed with Biliary Atresia — a devastating disease that silently attacks the bile ducts, slowly shutting down the liver and stealing away a child’s chance at a normal life.

His parents once held onto hope when doctors performed the Kasai procedure, a complex surgery meant to restore bile flow and buy him time. For a brief moment, it felt as though they had wrestled him back from the brink.

But the relief did not last.

As days passed, his condition worsened — his tiny stomach, once soft and flat, is now swollen, stretched by a liver that has become enlarged, hardened and increasingly scarred.

Medical tests show alarming deterioration, and the numbers no longer offer reassurance; they deliver urgency.

Doctors have now made it painfully clear: a liver transplant is no longer an option — it is his only lifeline.

And in a testament to a mother’s immeasurable love, Maxy’s own mother, Stephanie Munira Sulan Muking, has been confirmed as a compatible donor. She is prepared to surrender at least 20 per cent of her liver so that her baby boy can live.

To give part of your own body is a sacrifice. To give it without hesitation is a mother’s instinct.

Yet even as she readies herself for surgery, another battle looms — one that cannot be fought in an operating theatre.

The transplant and treatment in Shanghai, China have already received ethical clearance. The medical team is prepared.

Time, however, is not on their side, as the total cost stands at RM200,000, with approximately RM180,000 still urgently needed.

“I have opened a donation fund, but the contributions have been slow, and Maxy needs the operation as soon as possible.

“Everything else has been approved. Funding is our only obstacle,” she told The Borneo Post when contacted today.

For Maxy, who is yet understand the pain coursing through his small body, each sunrise is another silent struggle. For his mother, every passing minute is a whispered prayer — that strangers might see her child not as a statistic or a figure on a medical report, but as a baby who deserves to grow, to run, to laugh, and to live.

In the quiet of hospital rooms and long nights filled with uncertainty, a mother waits — willing to give her flesh and blood, hoping the world might help with what she cannot give alone.

Because sometimes, saving a life does not require extraordinary power. It requires collective compassion.

Those wishing to assist may channel contributions to Pertubuhan Kebajikan Nadi Permata Malaysia (Maybank account number 5515 7530 7417, with reference: Bantuan Maxy BA).

Any enquiries can be made via contacting Stephanie Munira at 012-2964119 or Mrs Mars (Nadi Permata Malaysia – NPM) at 013-7444501.