His family was desperately searching for a donor: 26-year-old Ilias dies the next day

Hope lasted only a few hours. On Tuesday, Ilias Mahyou’s family was making repeated appeals to raise awareness about organ donation and try to find the liver that could save the young man. On Wednesday evening, his sister Sanaa announced his death.

Ilias had been in critical condition for several days at UZ Gent, the university hospital in Ghent. His condition had deteriorated rapidly after complications linked to a new liver transplant.

His serious health problems had begun very early. At just 15, Ilias had suffered acute liver failure. He had since undergone several operations and transplants.

Last May, at 26, he received a third liver. But this new transplant did not bring the hoped-for improvement. The complications multiplied, and his condition eventually required him to be placed in an induced coma.

His family had explained to Het Nieuwsblad that the young man urgently needed another compatible liver.

On Bladi.net : The survival of Hafsa depends on a North African donor: the heartbreaking appeal of a Moroccan-origin police officer

The situation had become serious enough for Ilias to be placed at the top of the European waiting list for a transplant.

Faced with the urgency, his family decided to make his story public. The aim was not to directly seek someone able to give him their liver while alive, but above all to encourage more people to become organ donors.

His sister notably put forward a message that went beyond Ilias’s individual case: even if registration could not save her brother, it might save someone else.

His mother and family were by his side

The hoped-for new liver ultimately did not arrive in time.

According to HLN, Ilias Mahyou died on Wednesday evening at UZ Gent, just one day after the public appeal made by his family.

His mother and several family members were with him at the time of his death.

The story recalls the exceptional mobilization that emerged in Belgium around Hafsa, a young girl who was looking for a compatible donor. In that case, the appeals led to a sharp increase in registrations by donors, particularly from the Moroccan community.

That mobilization subsequently contributed to a record number of registrations in Flanders. Nearly 3,000 new candidates of Moroccan and Turkish origin had joined the stem cell donor registries, showing the impact that appeals made by families can have.

On Bladi.net : Stem cells: how the Moroccan community in Belgium has changed the game

For the Mahyou family, it is now time for the funeral.

A farewell ceremony is to be held at the El Fath and Annasr Grand Mosque in Hoboken, in the Antwerp region. The family still has to announce the exact time of the funeral prayer.

After this ceremony in Belgium, Ilias’s body will be transported to Morocco, where the young man will be buried.

His death comes after more than ten years marked by treatments, hospitalizations and three transplants. Until Tuesday, his loved ones still hoped that a new donor could give the young man another chance. Twenty-four hours later, his family announced his death.