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When the person needing a live organ transplant is your own child, the decision to undergo a serious operation is, as one mother says, a “no-brainer,” even when the procedures and repercussions are complicated. The three families in this story had little trouble deciding to submit to multiple procedures, with two family members undergoing surgery at the same time, in order to save or dramatically improve their children’s lives.

According to The New England Journal of Medicine, the intangible benefits of saving a life are most rewarding and the risk-benefit ratio is most favorable when the donor is genetically and emotionally related to the recipient. These families would agree.

A Grandmother Steps In

Seven-year-old Jalen Fields lives in Austell with his mother and three brothers, but it’s his grandmother Karen Williams of Euharlee who saved his life.

Jalen was born with polycystic kidney disease, and at 3 weeks old he was admitted to the hospital where he’d remain for months. In January 2003, when he was 2, Jalen had a kidney transplant from a deceased donor, but last year his body began to reject that kidney, causing a host of health problems, including congestive heart failure.

That’s when Nita (as Jalen and his brothers call their grandmother) started researching living donors. “I had no idea that his insurance would pay for me to have the surgery,” says Williams. “Once I got that information, I was ready to be tested.”  William’s husband Keith was on board as well. “He had watched Jalen suffer and had seen the stress it had caused my daughter. When we found out I was a match, the entire family was so excited,” she says.

Since having the transplant surgery in May, recovery has been better than expected for both Jalen and his grandmother. Williams was back at work six weeks after the surgery. Jalen has labs done once a week to ensure everything is working properly, and he will have to take immunosuppressant medication for the rest of his life. “But that is much better than him having to go to dialysis three times a week,” says his grandmother.

Long term, doctors tell Williams she’ll be fine living with one kidney and that Jalen will live a long, healthy life. “They told us in the beginning that his body could reject my kidney because there are no guarantees,” Williams says, “but when they put the kidney into his little body they said it began to work instantly.”

Dad to the Rescue

Beverly and Tod Ellison found out their son Trevor, now 9, had enlarged kidneys when he was in utero.
“At my 20-week sonogram they said something was wrong with his kidneys, but they weren’t sure what,” Beverly Ellison says. When he was born, it was discovered the baby had kidney reflux.

Trevor had his first of many surgeries at 3 months old. After that, routine tests and more surgeries were a regular part of his young life, along with medications and a special diet. When he was 7, it was decided
that a transplant was his only hope for a life that didn’t include dialysis.

“We’d heard that living donations are better,” his mother says. “So that’s what we wanted to do.” A living donation kidney can last up to 30 years; a kidney from a deceased donor may only last 15 years.

Tod was back at work within 10 days of the transplant, but it took almost six weeks before he really felt back
to normal. “I’ve always heard it was tougher on the donor, and it seemed to be true with us,” says his wife. “Trevor was amazing – he never asked for pain medicine during his week-long stay at Children’s Healthcare
of Atlanta, and once he was home he was back to normal.”

Trevor has gained a much-needed 13 pounds since his transplant. “He is enjoying his new life,” reports Tod.
“He has more energy and more desire to enjoy things.”

The doctors continue to monitor Trevor’s blood and kidneys to make sure there are no rejections. Eventually, Trevor will need another transplant – but, thanks to his dad, not until he’s in his 40s.

Emergency Decision

For Emily McBride, the process of donating a portion of her liver to her now 4-year-old son, Jackson, was a no-brainer and an extremely fast process. “They never determined what caused Jackson’s liver to fail,” she says. “From the day we first took him to the doctor and started running tests to two weeks later when he had the transplant, 90 percent of his liver cells were dead.”

Jackson, who became ill at 18 months, was diagnosed with Fulminant (Acute) Hepatic Liver Failure in March 2006. As soon as the Augusta family arrived at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, tests were begun and young Jackson (Jax to his family) was put on the national donor list that evening. “The next day there were no donors available and Jax was getting worse,” recalls Emily. “They said he might not make it two more days, so they decided to test myself and Justin [Jackson’s dad] to see who would be the better match; my liver was bigger, so they chose me.”

The next day, doctors determined which portion of Emily’s liver she’d share with her son; the transplant was made the following day.

“I don’t really have the words to describe how I felt,” Emily says. “It all went so incredibly fast that I don’t even think I had time to process it until after it was all over, and then I just broke down.

“There were absolutely no doubts or reservations in my mind that I was going to do what was needed for my son to live,” she adds. “I don’t think there is another mother out there who wouldn’t have done the same thing.” 
Emily thinks it was toughest on her fiance, Justin. “They had us in different hospitals,” she explains. “And having both of us in surgery at the same time was a little hard to handle.”

Emily spent about a week in the hospital and felt pretty good. Recovery proved slower for Jackson. He was in ICU for almost six weeks, and in the hospital a total of about three months. “He had a few bumps along the road, but he was a tough little guy and pulled through them all,” says his mother.
Jackson’s biggest struggle was relearning to sit up, crawl and walk. “When he came out of surgery he was so swollen they couldn’t close his stomach all the way, so it was left open for about four weeks,” she says. His muscles were also weak from being in bed for so long.

Jackson will be on anti-rejection medications for the rest of his life. “He has had quite a few infections since the transplant and had to be on IV meds at home, but thankfully we have been hospital- and tube-free since the fall of last year,” says Emily.  “He is doing awesome now – and can finally be a kid.”

For all three families, that’s what it was all about – making sure their child could be just a kid.