Medicine continues its development and achievements in order to facilitate the patient’s life or save him. This is what happened with a mother who donated part of her liver to her young son, who suffers from a rare disease, through an innovative surgical technique.
Doctors at King’s College Hospital in London, who performed the surgery, confirmed that the 21-month-old Teddy Nicholls had the opportunity to grow normally like other children.
Teddy was born with a rare genetic condition called neonatal hemochromatosis, which causes liver failure in newborns and can be fatal if left untreated.
According to the newspaper “Independent“This is the second surgery for baby Teddy, as he needed a transplant to save his life when he was only 10 weeks old in April 2022, and doctors at that time used part of the liver of a deceased donor. At that time, his mother, Emma Nicholls, was not able to donate because the operation took place after a period of time. Short of the birth process.
The final medical procedure was required to increase the blood flow needed for Teddy to keep him alive in the long term.
In this context, the doctors in both operations used an advanced technique known as “one-piece liver transplantation,” which aims to reduce the size of the donated liver – from a dead or living person – to fit the child’s body dimensions.
While the only alternative solution is to wait for a donor liver from a young child who has died, and King’s College Hospital described this as very rare.
His mother said: “I knew I wanted to do everything I could to help my son, and as a family we were extremely grateful to the donor and his family who saved Teddy’s life through his first organ transplant, and I had no doubt in my ability to donate when needed.”
Three weeks after the procedure, Teddy returned home to his mother to enjoy Christmas with his father, Greg Nichols, and his 5-year-old brother, Theo.
His mother expresses her gratitude “to all the medical team at the hospital. They were wonderful in taking care of my child, Teddy, and in every step of our journey.”
On the other hand, the hospital usually receives one or two cases of neonatal hemochromatosis every year.
On the other hand, Dr. Hector Velca Melendez, a consultant transplant surgeon at the NHS Foundation Trust at King’s College Hospital, did not hide his happiness that “I see Teddy and Emma in good condition, and thanks to his mother’s donation, he has the opportunity to grow normally.”
2023-12-27 08:00:00
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