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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: RightSide on January 19, 2009, 07:34:30 AM
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Granger baby in need of kidney transplant
By ALICIA GALLEGOS
Tribune Staff Writer
Story Updated: Jan 18, 2009 at 11:33 AM EST
GRANGER — At first glance, the blue-eyed baby sitting on the living room floor among a sea of toddler toys and stuffed animals resembles a perfectly healthy little girl.
Eleven-month-old Bridget McCaffrey squeals with delight as she plays, lifting her bright eyes and pudgy cheeks toward her mom and raising her arms for a cuddle.
But a closer look at Bridget’s changing table near the McCaffreys’ kitchen reveals a blood pressure testing kit, gauze and a baby scale. Upstairs in Bridget’s bedroom, next to the little girl’s crib, is a dialysis machine.
For first-time parents, Kim and Dave McCaffrey, these tools and equipment have become as routine as baby bottles since Bridget was born.
While Kim was still pregnant, doctors discovered Bridget’s kidneys were malfunctioning, and after her birth she was diagnosed with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease.
Essentially, explained Dave McCaffrey, Bridget has cysts on her kidneys that cause them to fail. The genetic condition affects one in 20,000 births.
Bridget was born four weeks early by emergency Caesarean section, said her mom, and she was immediately taken on life support to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. At nine days old, she began dialysis, becoming the youngest dialysis patient in the state.
“She was one of the sickest babies in the hospital at the time,” Dave McCaffrey said. “In terms of the spectrum of how bad the condition can be, it was the worst it could have been.”
Bridget eventually began breathing on her own, and after eight weeks, she was able to come home. Although appearing physically healthy, Bridget is now in need of a kidney transplant.
The McCaffreys, Dave, 31, and Kim, 30, are raising money to fund the transplant with help from the Children’s Organ Transplant Association. The nonprofit organization walks families through the process of fundraising, explains Arlene Davis, spokeswoman for COTA.
The group also sets up an account for the transplant, with 100 percent of funds going to transplant expenses.
Even with health insurance, the McCaffreys know the procedure will be costly, they say. With hospital stays, anti-rejection medication, loss of wages and additional expenses, transplants generally run close to $500,000, according to Davis.
So far, the fundraising team has raised $6,000, but Kim says the goal is $65,000 in the next year.
The family hopes Bridget can be on the transplant list in a year. Right now, she weighs only 17 pounds and must be 22 pounds to be considered for the procedure.
Bridget is smaller than other babies her age, and lags behind in crawling and walking, likely because of discomfort associated with her catheter. Her cognitive and fine motor skills, however, are not affected, her dad said.
As the family works to raise transplant funds, Bridget undergoes the daily practice of blood pressure tests, medications and weight monitoring.
The McCaffreys are vigilant when it comes to feeding, Kim McCaffrey explained, mixing a special solution into the child’s formula to extract potassium, which she cannot have.
Every night, as the baby lies down to sleep, she is hooked to a dialysis machine for 10 hours. She also wears a catheter.
“It’s like changing a diaper,” Kim McCaffrey said of all the medical treatments. “We have no other frame of reference.”
“To say the least, it’s a full-time job to take care of her,” Dave McCaffrey added.
The parents live in constant fear of the baby pulling out her dialysis tube or contracting an infection.
But the new parents are also like any other doting mom and dad, proud of every new expression and sound Bridget makes, and filling her round face with kiss after kiss.
“She is who she is and we love her,” Kim McCaffrey said.
Staff writer Alicia Gallegos:
agallegos@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6368
http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/37789074.html
Bridget's photo is here:
http://media.wsbt.com/images/1kidney.jpg