Samantha Porthouse was the first child in Australia to receive a liver transplant from an adult donor in the 1980s

SAMANTHA Porthouse was in 1987 the first child in Australia to receive a liver transplant from an adult donor. It was unknown whether she would survive.

BEFORE she was even two years old Samantha Porthouse had stared death in the face.

It was only at the last minute when her liver was about to fail that she was granted a reprieve.

At 22 months, the baby who had struggled all her short life with a bile duct disease known as biliary atresia, became the first child in Australia to undergo a liver transplant using part of an adult liver.

Now aged 30, she is a mother to her own little girl, four-year-old Jorja, and is planning to study to become a childcare worker in future.

Ms Porthouse from West Hobart has spoken out about her own experiences at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, as it prepares to mark its 20th birthday.

She travelled from Hobart to Sydney for regular six monthly check-ups at the hospital from the ages of about 10 to 18 years.

Samantha on the frontpage of The Daily Mirror.

She received the liver transplant in 1987 as a toddler.

“I still to this day, call it my second home, because I spent so much time up there,” Ms Porthouse said.

“It was a nice hospital, the staff were friendly, I used to like going to the Japanese gardens.

“As I got older, I admired my doctor for all the stuff he did for me. He saved my life.”

Samantha’s parents put everything on hold for their little girl.

Ms Porthouse was a groundbreaking medical case that garnered huge media attention.

As a baby, Sydney’s afternoon newspaper The Daily Mirror ran a picture with her on the front page and the headline, ‘Let me Live’ as doctors embarked on an unsuccessful 12-month search to find her a child’s liver.

Today, Ms Porthouse still has to travel to Melbourne for specialist check-ups, but is forever grateful to the doctors and medical staff at the hospital who saved her life.

“I can’t imagine what I’d do if (daughter) Jorja went through something like that,” she said.

“It’s really scary, I’m very glad that I’m here today.”

Samantha travelled to Westmead Hospital for regular six monthly check-ups at the hospital from the ages of about 10 to 18 years.

The groundbreaking transplant marked the beginning of a successful program.

Senior social worker Diana Carmody met the Porthouse family a week after the young Samantha had her transplant at the hospital, then based in Camperdown.

“This was the beginning of what was to be a very successful program,” she said.

“Her transplant was the first where they would cut down a bigger liver to the right size and put it into little Samantha.

“In the intervening 20 years or so, there are now a number of split donations.”

Social worker Diana Carmody met the Porthouse family a week after Samantha had her transplant. She still works at The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

Ms Carmody said Samantha’s parents Ernie and Debbie Porthouse had remained incredibly strong and supportive over the many years their daughter attended the hospital.

“It was very hard for them to be waiting and waiting and seeing their little girl get sicker and sicker and expecting she would die,’ she said.

“They just put everything on hold for the sake of their little girl.”

‘She was a delightful little girl and teenager and we were very happy that her transplant went well.”

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead moved from Camperdown to Sydney’s west on November 6, 1995.

It has since become the largest paediatric centre in NSW caring for children from around Australia and across the Pacific Rim.

The hospital is the leading speciality unit for severe burns, cancer, heart conditions , liver and kidney disease and treats more than 70,000 children annually.