Lidija Stojanović (35) from Belgrade has been living for six years having the liver that she received from Leyla Emšija (20) from the town of Bijeljina, who passed away suddenly in January 2018, due to a ruptured aneurysm in her brain.
Ever since the day she woke up from anaesthesia after her surgery, Lidija wanted to meet the family of her donor and say thank-you for mustering up the courage at the hardest moment in their lives to give their consent to donate their daughter’s organs to those who needed them most.
She then searched in vain, until Leyla’s mother – Fatima Emšija – contacted her in June last year. Yesterday Emšija found the strength to tell Kurir the story of what happened on that fateful day when her only child Leyla suddenly felt ill, how she found out that it was Lidija who received her daughter’s liver, and how much she wants to hug the girl through whom her Leyla lives on.
‘Mom, I have a splitting headache and my neck is all stiff’
On that January 18th, nothing indicated that a horrible tragedy would befall the home of the Emšija family from Bijeljina. Their 20-year-old daughter Leyla, a student in the Journalism Department at Tuzla, was getting ready for her first cousin’s wedding, and was smiling and happy. It bothered her a bit that she had postponed an exam because of the celebration, but she didn’t want to miss such an important day in her cousin’s life.
“After the civil ceremony was over at the Town Hall, Leyla came home to get some rest and get ready for the evening party, where young people were planned to gather and continue celebrating. I brought her a meal, everything looked normal, but then she suddenly complained: “Mom, I have a splitting headache and my neck is all stiff,” she said to me. I thought that she had washed her hair and then went outside with her hair still wet. But the pain didn’t go away, it was getting stronger,” said Fatima Emšija.
Then she realized that they needed to see a doctor and immediately called her husband, and then a taxi that took them to the Bijeljina hospital.
“As we were getting into the taxi, Leyla already had trouble walking. They got her to the Emergency Service in a wheelchair and, as they were examining her, she went into a coma. A CT scan was run, and they told us it was an aneurysm and that Leyla had a brain haemorrhage. Her husband asked the doctors if they could transfer her to Belgrade, and they said yes.
‘Not good, her brain is swimming in blood’
So they headed out to Belgrade...
Leyla in a coma, in an ambulance, and Fatima in a car, with Leyla’s sister Alisa and her husband.
“Our relative Dragan was waiting for us outside the A&E Centre in Belgrade, and he told us that Leyla had already been examined and that she was in a bad way. We sat down to wait, the doctor came out and told us that Leyla’s brain was swimming in blood, that her aneurysm had ruptured, and that there was no way to save her. He didn’t beat about the bush or give us false hope, he was direct. I asked him if I could see her, and they let me.”
‘My Leyla would donate her organs’
On the following day, when Fatima went to the hospital, the doctor told her slowly, carefully choosing her words, that Leyla was alive only because she was on a life support system.
“The doctor then asked me if I would give my consent to donate Leyla’s organs. I thought that my Leyla would want that – she’d been helping everybody, doing humanitarian work as well. We had even talked about donating organs while watching a TV show, and Leyla then said, “This is such a nice and humane gesture. If someone cannot live, why wouldn’t someone else be able to?” After calling my husband, who told me to do what I thought I should do, I said, “Yes, you may take Leyla’s organs and give them to whoever needs them.”
Afterwards, Fatima was told by the doctors that Leyla’s liver and kidney had been transplanted into those who were most in need, but that the heart couldn’t be transplanted as she had been on life support for too long.
“At that time, all I wanted was for someone’s life to be saved. But as time went on, I often thought about who the people who received Leyla’s liver and kidney were. I felt that my husband also wanted to know that. And then a relative of mine told me that he’d seen on TV that a girl from Belgrade had received a liver on the very night when my Leyla died. I started to search the internet, and Lidija’s name came up. I asked Bojana, the daughter of Leyla’s godfather, to help me. She got in touch with Lidija on Instagram, told her what it was all about, and Lidija gave her cell phone number to her. I first messaged her, and then we talked.”
‘Tears ran down like waterfalls’
Fatima said that she would never forget that first conversation with Lidija, which took place in June last year.
“It was very emotional. Both Lidija and myself tried hard to have a normal conversation, but at the end we were both crying. It was only the second time we talked that I felt a sort of lightness because a young life had been saved. I don’t even like hearing stories about people claiming it isn’t allowed according to some religious. Why is it a sin to save someone’s life? Nonsense.”.
‘Leyla and Lidija are like twins’
‘Lidija is so similar to my Leyla. Every time we talk, I discover again and again how many similar traits they have, as if they were twins.’
Fatima does not hide how glad she is that it was Lidija that received her daughter’s liver because she reminds her very much of Leyla.
“Lidija is so similar to my Leyla. Every time we talk, I discover again and again how many similar traits they have, as if they were twins. I cannot explain to you this feeing of relief knowing that Lidija lives on, and that part of my Leyla lives on in this way too. I can hardly wait for Lidija to come to Bijeljina, to give her a big hug.”
Lidija became ill at the tender age of 11, and the diagnosis was autoimmune hepatitis. From that moment onwards, she was aware of the cruel truth – a liver transplant was her only chance to survive.
Leyla was a student in the Journalism Department at Tuzla, and all who knew her say that she was a smart, beautiful, and ambitious girl. She’d only receive distinctions and was loved both by her fellow students and her lecturers. She dreamt of becoming a good journalist and had a million plans that her untimely death sadly cut short.
