New, radical transplant takes boy’s pain away: ‘He’ll live a pretty normal life’
JUST months ago, five-year-old Finn Carroll was experiencing pain as bad as giving birth. The tough kindergarten kid is now looking forward to a new life — free from agony — after he became the youngest Australian to have a new, radical transplant.
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JUST months ago, five-year-old Finn Carroll was experiencing pain as bad as giving birth.
The tough kindergarten kid is now looking forward to a new life — free from agony — after he became the youngest Australian to have a new, radical transplant.
For more than three years, Finn has battled hereditary chronic pancreatitis, a rare childhood condition that would ultimately make him diabetic and at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
“As the years went on, he was having lots of hospital admissions and things were changing,” his mother Angela Carroll said.
“He was at the stage where he was in constant, daily pain.”
A doctor told Mrs Carroll it was comparable to being in labour.
To end his suffering, which was relieved by taking opioids and regular hospitalisations, doctors at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead decided to perform the TPIAT operation.
A first for the western Sydney hospital, the new procedure involved removing Finn’s pancreas, the organ that releases insulin and enzymes to help digestion.
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Surgeons then extracted insulin-producing cells called islets and injected them into his liver.
Over the next four to six months, Finn’s liver should start producing insulin to regulate blood glucose levels, reducing his chances of becoming diabetic.
During the 12-hour operation, which was three months in the planning, Finn’s gall bladder and part of his small intestine were also removed.
“I’m relieved that we did have the surgery because from what we heard from the surgeons afterwards, they were quite surprised at how damaged his pancreas was,” Mrs Carroll said.
Paediatric surgeon associate professor Gordon Thomas, part of a “big team” responsible for last month’s operation, said Finn’s liver results were promising.
“The early indicators are that it’s working well,” he said.
“We are very pleased we took out his pancreas because when the pancreas is damaged to that extent, sometimes it’s hard to extract islets out of it, but the amount of islets we got out of him was quite satisfactory.”
Dr Thomas said not every case of childhood pancreatitis was suitable for the transplant.
“Before Finn had the surgery, he met several of us and we had some discussions together before we felt that is was the right thing to do,” he said.
“The best case scenario is that if all goes very well, he will not require insulin.
“He won’t have any pain and he’ll live a pretty normal life.”
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Finn, a big brother to 16-month-old Declan, is expected to return home to Newcastle tomorrow.
And with his sixth birthday coming up and plans for an overseas holiday, the cheeky boy has a much brighter outlook.
“He’s coming back to being himself,” Mrs Carroll said.
“He’s still on strong medication, which we’re trying to get him off, and he’s still experiencing pain, which they think is from the reconstruction of his digestive system. They think that with time, that will ease.”