SCAR SHOWS FIGHTING SPIRIT OF BOY WHO’S ONE-OF-A-KIND
A LITTLE boy was left with a zip-like scar after surgery to relocate his only kidney – the first UK operation of its kind.
Ivor Jeffrey lost his first kidney at one and with his second failing rapidly, his devastated parents accepted an operation was their boy’s only hope.
The 12-hour complete aortic bypass saw medics move Ivor’s kidney from the right to the left hand side of his body.
It left the tot with a giant scar running across his stomach, which was held together by staples – resembling a giant zip across his tiny body.
Mum Toni-Lee Jeffrey, 29, said: “Ivor has been a medical mystery since the day he was born. His giant zip-like scar just goes to show how strong he has been amongst all of that.
“The most important part is that he’s with us and happy. Now, he is a lot more stable and full of energy.”
Toni-Lee and her husband Robert, 30, first learned the tot had severe heart complications after he turned blue and suffered heart failure 10 days after his birth in
October 2017. Toni-Lee, said: “I felt Ivor collapse in my arms.
“A group of doctors and nurses hurried him to resus as he suffered heart failure. Robert and I could only watch.”
Ivor had extremely high blood pressure but doctors were unable to diagnose what exactly was wrong. Ivor stayed at Southampton Hospital for the first three months of his life, before being transferred to Great Ormond Street
Children’s Hospital in London for specialist treatment in December 2017.
By the following autumn, Ivor’s first kidney had failed and doctors had to remove it. Toni-Lee said: “We spent most of 2018 in and out of hospital.
“Doctors explained to us that there were no other children like Ivor. He was one of a kind.
“We saw geneticists in the hope of discovering what may have caused his condition, but they found nothing.”
In November 2019, doctors began planning Ivor’s surgery to relocate his kidney to improve the blood flow.
Toni-Lee said: “The surgeon had never performed this operation on someone as young as Ivor. It would be a risky first. They even admitted he might not make it.”
Last December, Ivor underwent the aortic bypass, where the surgeon changed the position of his kidney.
Toni-Lee said: “The operation went really well, and we stayed in Great Ormond Street for three weeks to be with Ivor.
“He was left with staples down his tummy that resembled a zip. I struggled to look at them.”
Now, Ivor has monthly check-ups and his parents test his blood pressure at home. There is a possibility he could have disabilities, but for now his condition is stable.
Toni-Lee, from Wareham, Dorset, added: “Eventually, he will need a kidney transplant. I try to stay relaxed, but I am constantly worried.
“He’s still the bouncy little boy we hoped he could be, and doesn’t let his scar or medical needs get in the way of having fun.”