DAD GIVES SON GIFT OF LIFE
LITTLE Lachlan Hay has so many reasons to be proud of his country cop dad and the biggest reason is snuggled safe and sound in his tiny tummy.
Chris Hay donated half of his liver to Lachlan in an operation that transformed the youngster’s life in 2012.
Lachlan was born healthy, but it soon became clear he was not putting on any weight despite getting heaps of milk from his mum Nelia.
Doctors suggested Nelia stop breastfeeding and move to formula but a change in Lachlan’s stool colour and still no weight gain meant the little battler needed to go to hospital in Brisbane.
It was not long before Chris and Nelia were given the news that their child’s body was not absorbing any fat.
At seven weeks of age, Lachlan had a biopsy and two weeks later an operation revealed major issues with his bile duct and gall bladder.
❝amount The of lives it can save is immense. — Nelia Hay
“His gall bladder was a shrivelled-up sack and his bile duct was like a thin pipe. It was basically non-existent,” Nelia said.
“They removed both of those and they re-plumbed his intestine into an s-bend.”
Nelia said the surgeons were happy with the outcome and everything looked like it was working.
Lachlan was nine months old when a couple of viruses invaded his body and he was back in hospital.
Four months later his name was added to the deceased donor list in the hope of finding him a new liver.
Determined to ease the trauma on Lachlan’s body and make sure he had a chance at growing to old age, Chris and Nelia asked doctors to take part of Chris’s liver and give it to their son.
“We saw a number of babies needing livers pass away and we didn’t want to be in that position,” Nelia said.
“We didn’t want to lose our baby.
“We could see him deteriorating, he was yellow. It was a really scary time.”
As the cost of live donor testing is extremely high it was decided Chris would be the first parent to go through the process.
“If Chris had not been a match then I would of gone through the process,” Nelia said.
“He had to go through a two-week cooling off period, which we didn’t want to do but it’s the law.”
On March 26, 2012, doctors
at the Princess Alexandra Hospital removed the left lobe of Chris’s liver.
The organ was taken to Herston where Lachlan was prepped for surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
The liver is the only organ that regenerates and it generally returns to normal
about six weeks after surgery.
Nelia said Lachlan’s experience gave her a strong appreciation for deceased organ donation and she would give hers if the time came.
“What a lot of people don’t realise is that when you go,
you don’t have a voice,” she said.
“You need to let your family know your wishes because sometimes things happen suddenly and the question is posed to the family. The amount of lives it can save is immense.”