Nan donates her liver for baby
Colour has come back to the cheeks of a Canterbury baby who has just received a very special gift from his nan – a new liver and a new chance at life.
Ten-month-old Amarni Emmanuel Kaifa-Wolters is in Starship Hospital in Auckland with his family, recovering from his liver transplant surgery in late January.
The Rangiora infant was born with biliary atresia, a rare congenital disease of the liver and bile ducts which occurs in infants, and was diagnosed at five months.
If left untreated, it can result in severe liver failure and death before the age of two.
‘‘I’d noticed his eyes,’’ said Amarni’s mother Nicole. The whites of his eyes had turned yellow and so had his skin.
Nicole took Amarni to the Plunket nurse with concerns about his prolonged jaundice, who told her to go to her GP immediately.
Amarni had three biopsies and by the third, he was diagnosed with biliary artesia.
Time is of the essence for biliary atresia patients. If left untreated, it can result in liver failure and death.
‘‘Some of his symptoms weren’t as strong as most biliary atresia children . . . [But] they should have picked up on it by the second biopsy,’’ Nicole said.
When a baby has biliary atresia, bile flow from the liver to the gall bladder is blocked. This causes the bile to be trapped inside the liver, quickly causing damage and scarring of the liver cells.
As his liver was too damaged by the time of diagnosis, Amarni needed a new liver.
‘‘Mum put her hand up to be a donor straight away . . . They wouldn’t do it for me because I was the main parent,’’ Nicole said.
‘‘It was amazing. It was really lucky she could do it.’’
Grandmother Suzie, 52, gave up 50 per cent of her liver to help her sick grandson.
‘‘It was a really hard week,’’ Suzie said.
She said his diagnosis was ‘‘devastating, it rips your heart out. ‘‘It was a journey . . . It looked like it could’ve gone in any direction.’’
One week after the operation Amarni had a clot in his liver and had to return to the operating table, but has not had any complications since.
‘‘They said he was the poster boy for transplants . . . I’m really thankful,’’ Nicole said.
It has been a tough six months for the Wolters family, with Nicole and Amarni going back and forth to hospital, and having to leave his siblings Azaira, 10, Kaleah, 8, and Lakai, 2 with family.
‘‘It was hard for everyone, especially the kids, we were in hospital so much from the first time we went to Starship.’’
‘‘It was hardest just before I left because we didn’t really know how it was going to go.’’
Amarni now has normalcoloured eyes and his skin is coming back to normal.
‘‘He was like this little boy who was trapped in this body of pain. He’s now joking around with his mum and he’s becoming a real little boy now, you know,’’ Suzie said.
‘‘I know it’s going to be a journey for him, but he’s got lots of people praying for him and he’s got Nicole.’’