In Brussels, the Saint-Luc university clinics performed their 500th liver transplant in a child. These transplants by living donor have been practiced for 30 years and allow the hospital to be recognized as an international center of expertise. A majority of patients come from abroad. This is the case of little Alicia.
Alicia is one and a half years old. She is a little girl full of life who discovers the world around her. “She is starting to eat very well. She tastes everything. She plays. She sleeps very well“, says Iwona, his mother. “She laughs. She is having fun. She does everything. She doesn’t cry a lot. It’s a great time“, adds Edward, his father.
Alicia lives in Poland with her parents but today, it is in a Brussels hospital that we meet her. Now everyone is doing well, but the path has not been easy.
Let’s go back a few months. Last October, it’s the big day: mother and daughter enter the operating room. Iwona is about to donate part of her liver to her one-year-old daughter. “I was very happy because I could give him part of my liver. It was so easy. Not everyone is so lucky. I knew it was the best thing I could do for her“, explains the mother.
We operate with magnifying loupes throughout the surgery
Alicia’s operation lasts about 10 hours. Around her: 3 surgeons, 2 nurses and 2 anesthesiologists. His mother is in the next room with the same device to carry out the transplant. Part of the liver is removed, cleaned and then transplanted in the child. “All its structures are much smaller than those of an adult. So that is one of the major technical particularities during the transplant. So we operate with magnifying glasses throughout the surgery, particularly because of the small size of the vascular structures that need to be connected for the new liver.“, says Catherine De Magnée, pediatric transplant surgeon at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc.
The operation is going well. The father is there and mother and daughter meet again. Both are recovering quickly and are in good health.
These children all have diseases that are potentially rapidly fatal
Every year, about thirty pediatric liver transplants by living donor are performed here in this hospital. The transplant unit is also recognized internationally for its expertise in the field. Three quarters of patients come from abroad. “It must be remembered that these children all have diseases that are potentially rapidly lethal, and that they are offered, thanks to transplantation, a survival rate of more than nine out of ten cases. Which is a drastic change in their outlook on life“, specifies Raymond Reding, head of the department of surgery and abdominal transplantation.
Once all the parameters have stabilized and the green light from the doctors, Alicia and her parents will be able to return to Poland. Belgium will forever be etched in their history.