Little Alannah Shevenell checked into Boston Children’s Hospital near death. Now, three months later, the brave nine-year-old walked out this week a medical miracle.
HLN affiliate WGME reports that when she was just five, doctors discovered Alannah had a rare, aggressive form of cancer, and a large tumor was growing in her abdomen. Chemotherapy wouldn’t work. The tumor was wrapping itself around her esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, and small intestines. Doctors warned her family it was only a matter of time before the tumor would cut off the blood supply to those vital organs.
A rare multiple organ transplant would be her only hope, but doctors would have to replace all six organs at once. Dr. Heung Be Kim is the director of pediatric transplants at Boston Children’s. He told WGME "This is a very difficult operation. It's about as difficult as you can get. And the hard part of it is the actual removal of the tumor and the organs." Kim says transplanting the new organs isn’t as complicated since they remain attached.
Alannah was on the transplant waiting list for 15 months before another family’s tragedy would give her a chance at survival. WGME reports her grandparents said the sacrifice of the anonymous donors led them to tears. Grandmother Deb Skolas said "We were so grateful … the people who donated the organs are so brave."
The operation took nearly 15 hours, and Dr. Kim says it was a success. After long weeks of recovering, Alannah got to head home this week. She told WGME she feels good as new. "It feels the same… and a pill went down my throat and I can still feel it." Alannah will stay on medicine to keep her body from rejecting the new organs.
But grandma Deb says she's not worried: "She's fought hard, you know. And they gave her something back. They gave her back her life. She's happy. She's happy. We're going home. We're going back to Maine."
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