Saudi woman donates 80% of her liver to co-wife

TAIF: In a remarkable act of compassion, a Saudi woman in Taif donated 80% of her liver to her husband’s second wife, ending the latter’s long struggle with kidney failure.

According to the Saudi Gazette, Noura Salem Al-Shammari, the first wife of Majed Baldah Al-Roqi, decided to help her co-wife, Taghreed Awadh Al-Saadi, after witnessing her endure years of dialysis. The gesture has been hailed locally as an extraordinary display of selflessness.

Al-Roqi told Okaz newspaper that Taghreed had suffered kidney failure for years and even spent a year in the United States seeking treatment without success. Upon her return to the Kingdom, he planned to donate one of his kidneys to her.

“I entrusted Um Turki [Noura] with our five children in case anything happened to me during surgery,” he said. “But I was astonished when she announced she would donate 80 percent of her liver to Taghreed, purely for the sake of God.”

Medical tests confirmed tissue compatibility, and the transplant surgery was successful. “She came like rain to revive a barren desert,” Al-Roqi said, praising his first wife’s life-saving gift.