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took nine months and a trip of nearly 3,000 miles, but in the end
it was all worth it for tiny Adara Henriquez and her parents, Rodolfo
and Martha. Adara was born last year in Panama City, Panama, with
biliary
atresia, a condition where an absence of bile ducts destroys
the liver by preventing the body from ridding itself of toxins.
An operation in Panama to save Adara’s liver was unsuccessful,
and the family quickly realized that the liver transplant needed
to save her life was not available in their home country. So they
began fundraising efforts to raise the $250,000 needed to bring
Adara to Boston. When they got here, though, they found that she
was too small and sick to have the transplant she needed, so Children’s
nurses and physicians worked for three months to improve Adara’s
condition. On March 11 she and her mother (who donated a piece of
her liver to Adara) went into separate Children’s operating
rooms for a difficult, two-part operation.
Heung
Bae Kim, MD, assistant in Surgery, was part
of team of surgeons from Children’s and the Lahey
Clinic that performed the operations. He says the challenges
didn’t end when Adara was well enough to undergo surgery.
“She weighed only 10 pounds when we operated, making her one
of the smallest babies we’ve ever transplanted,” says
Kim. “And she had very small blood vessels compared to her
mother. That’s what we were worried about the most. We told
Adara’s parents that there was a 30 percent chance she wouldn’t
live through the surgery.”
Adara did live, however, and the nine-hour procedure left both her
and her mother in good health. The family will return to Panama
when she is healthy enough to travel. She will have to take anti-rejection
medication for the rest of her life, but for now, according to her
proud father, Adara is smiling and moving around her crib, things
she was unable to do before surgery. “It’s a gift from
God,” says Rodolfo. “Now I can look to a future with
her, and it makes me happy as a father to know that my child is
going to live and be able to play with me.”—MC
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