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Michael Jackson paid for Hungarian child`s liver transplant

As the world continues to mourn Michael Jackson`s death and review the life he filled with not only music and performing, but also charitable works, attention is being drawn to the liver transplant he paid for in 1994 for Hungarian child Bela Farkas.

Jackson and his then new bride, Lisa Marie Presley, met the four year-old boy during a visit to the Bethesda Children`s Hospital when Jackson was in Budapest, Hungary shooting a music video. Doctors at the hospital told Jackson that Bela`s mother had abandoned him and that his father rarely visited him. Jackson and Presley were so taken with the boy, who had been in the hospital since his birth, that they returned the following day for several hours to visit with him.

Bela was diagnosed with a congenital liver disease that discolored his skin and prevented him from digesting food. Without a transplant, doctors gave him one year to live. Bela`s transplant was to take place at a Western hospital, as those in Hungary did not have the necessary equipment for the transplant. The estimated cost for the transplant was $120, 000. Jackson pledged funds from Heal the World, the charitable foundation he created in 1992 inspired by his charitable single of the same name, to cover all expenses related to Bela`s transplant.

examiner.com - Sunday, June 28, 2009