Bucks mom to donate portion of her liver to her son
Every parent always says the same thing, that they’d take a bullet for their kid, be run over by a train, whatever it takes. No matter what, they’d step up and do what’s right.
Well, it’s easy to say when you know there’s probably zero chance of having to dive in front of a shooting gun or get hit by a locomotive.
But what happens when your child needs a liver? Do you put him on the waiting list or do you throw your hat right in the ring and offer to be a live donor?
For Annette Collins, she couldn’t get her hat off fast enough.
Her oldest son, Patrick, is 16. He was born with Pierre Robin Syndrome and is intellectually disabled. And as any parent of a special needs child can attest, you never know what’s going to happen next.
In Patrick’s case, it’s what didn’t happen.
“We noticed he wasn’t growing, wasn’t hitting puberty,” Annette said. “And at 15 we started getting very worried. His younger brother was in puberty and a foot taller.”
Annette brought her son to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one doctor visit led to the next. Then the doctors found something they weren’t expecting, nothing to do with the syndrome, nothing to do with the delayed puberty.
“They found huge lesions on his liver,” she said. “They determined three-quarters of his liver was damaged by these lesions. At first they thought it was cancer, but thankfully it wasn’t. The doctors said Patrick’s liver is ‘very unique,’ and that they’d seen nothing like it. They recommended a liver transplant.”
While the term “liver transplant” is common enough in America, the procedure is still relatively rare, with only 6,000 transplants occurring each year, according to the American Transplant Foundation, with the vast majority coming from cadavers. The wait list is long.
As for living donors? Exceedingly rare, with only 359 performed in 2015, the last year official numbers are available.
Annette Collins was determined to find a living donor for her son. Friends and family went through the process to see if they were a match.
In the end, there was one: Mom.
“You have to be between 20 and 50 years old, and I’m 51, so I figured they wouldn’t want my old liver,” she said. “But I started the testing anyway, and a few weeks ago I was found to be a match.”
And now, in the coming weeks, this Bucks County woman (she preferred her town not be named) will be donating a large portion of her liver to her son.
She said Patrick, despite his intellectual disability, knows exactly what’s about to happen.
“He’s excited for all the visitors and the presents,” she said.
The surgery lasts anywhere from 4 to 18 hours, and the recovery time is six to eight weeks. The surgeries will be performed in different hospitals, and Annette’s husband Mike plans to be by Patrick’s side for as long as he remains at CHOP, up to 10 days.
“It’s going to be a little overwhelming for my husband,” she said. “My sister and dad will be living with us while this is going on.”
As for Annette’s other son, Michael?
“He’s worried, but he did tell me that ‘nothing bad will happen, Mom,’” she said.
There’s no speeding trains, no bad guys with guns, just a mother doing what needs to be done for her child.
A Christmas miracle? Hardly. Just the beauty of humanity, shining through.