1-Year-Old Gets Adult Kidney In Daring Transplant

[okarol]

 Apr 24, 2010 7:46 am US/Eastern

1-Year-Old Gets Adult Kidney In Daring Transplant

Mother's Cousin Almost A Perfect Match For Little Jack Robinson; Surgeons Get Creative During Procedure

Reporting
Sean Hennessey
MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. (CBS) ―

An agonizing drama turned worry into wonder for a Long Island family.

Little Jack Robinson looks like every other toddler, playing peek-a-boo, crawling around the house like crazy.

But just weeks ago he couldn't do any of that and was bound to a hospital bed.

Since then, 16-month-old boy has made medical history.

They say every child is a miracle, but for Steve and Nilsa Robinson, son Jack may fit the bill.

"He was in and out of the hospital for the first year of his life," Nilsa said.

Born with a kidney infection, the toddler's early life wasn't nearly what it should have been.

"He wasn't growing. He wasn't gaining weight," Nilsa said.

And his parents knew someday he'd need a transplant because without it, according to his father, "He would have died."

Mom and Dad assumed either one of them would be their son's donor, but they thought wrong.

"When they called me and said, no you're not a match, and your husband's not a match, I thought I was going to die," Nilsa said.

Enter Nilsa's cousin, Laura Scicutella said.

"I was kind of like, alright let's do it," Scicutella said.

She was almost a perfect match.

"You know I just wanted to get it done for Jack. He was on dialysis every night and, you know, for a baby who's a year old, that's no way to live," Scicutella said.

The transplant took place at New York Presbyterian Hospital where Jack would be the youngest and smallest transplant recipient the hospital had ever seen.

"Transplanting Jack was somewhat unique in that he was really small," surgeon Dr. Michael Goldstein said.

And that was the challenge for Goldstein, squeezing an adult kidney into this toddler's tummy.

"I had to move his liver out of the way, remove the right kidney and place the new giant kidney for him, in the same position," Goldstein said.

"I didn't know they could do that. I was amazed," Steve Robinson said.

Amazed and thankful the operation was so successful. Home video captured the child in his hospital bed looking better almost immediately.

Two months later, the 18-month-old is taking anti-organ rejection medication and growing, thanks to a young woman who sacrificed when she was needed.

"I know I did a great thing and all but it's family you know? I did what anybody else would have done," Scicutella said.

But to the parents of a medical marvel, she did a lot more than that.

"She's just my angel. She really is. She gave my son life," Nilsa Robinson said.

A life his parents consider miraculous.

Because little Jack received his kidney from a living donor, doctor's don't expect him to have to get another transplant until he's an adult.

http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/kidney.transplant.jack.2.1653605.html