Mount Gambier teenager Dexter O’dine waiting for double heart, kidney transplant as family’s bills pile up

A sick Mount Gambier boy needing a new heart and kidney would make history if the surgery goes ahead, as his family remains split between Melbourne and SA. Warning: Graphic

Dexter O’dine, 15, would be the first child in Australia to receive a double kidney and heart transplant if it goes ahead. Picture: GoFundMe

A gravely ill 15-year-old Mount Gambier boy and his desperate family face months of waiting to see if he can undergo an Australian first – a double transplant of a kidney and heart in a child.

Dexter O’dine is in late-stage heart and kidney failure in Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital and such an operation would require months in intensive care after surgery.

Once out of ICU, he faces and even longer stay in Melbourne as an outpatient, his mother Biance O’dine said.

Dexter started showing signs something wasn’t right just three weeks after Ms O’dine opened her Mount Gambier cafe Lucielles Cafe and Eatery.

“He started to complain of a belly ache, which wasn’t unusual for Dexter as he didn’t like school and that was his go-to, but then he started to have a puffy face,” the mother of three said.

Initial symptoms were dismissed as allergies or an immune response to a virus. Picture: GoFundMe

His symptoms progressed – sleeping 18 hours each day, a distended stomach and more pain – but doctors dismissed his initial presentation as allergies or a simple virus.

Dexter’s father Damien O’dine took him for a third opinion and within 48 hours everything changed.

“His father took him to the hospital and we found out that he had an enlarged heart and he had fluid leaking into the rest of his body … within six hours we were flying from Mount Gambier to Adelaide,” Ms O’dine said.

Dexter now has two machines operating each half of his heart while he await surgery for his failing heart and kidneys. Picture: GoFundMe

“The next day his dad rings and said, ‘Dexter has been put on life support in an induced coma, we are going to Melbourne’.”

Now Ms O’dine, 38, has spent almost eight months in Victoria with her son in the Royal Children’s Hospital – leaving behind her business and two more sons, Phoenix O’dine, 17, and Leo Haggett, 5.

“I’m in awe of (my sons) … it can be so confronting for a child but they want to be here together all the time,” she said. “And it make a huge difference for Dexter when they can visit.”

Ms O’dine described her son as a “loud, outgoing teenager” who has become quieter since his admission to hospital. Picture: Facebook.

Phoenix O’dine, Dexter, and Leo Haggett continue to share their brother bonds whenever they get to spend time together during regular visits. Picture: Facebook.

Diagnosed with late-stage heart failure, a heart transplant was not originally on the cards for Dexter because of fears he wouldn’t survive the surgery.

Now the brave teenager’s kidneys are failing, setting him up for the rare double organ transplant.

Dexter has two machines operating each half of his heart as he waits to see if his body responds to treatment to get on to the waiting list.

“We have not been well enough to go on the transplant list … there has been lots of complications … but we’ve very recently been informed we are now in acute kidney failure,” Ms O’dine said.

“We’re just waiting for the logistics of the actual double transplant surgery right now before we get on the list, because obviously it hasn’t been done before.”

If he undergoes the surgery, it would be the first time in Australia a child has a kidney and heart transplant.

A heart transplant requires several days in ICU, followed by three months as a outpatient living in Melbourne. But the double transplant needs three months just in ICU, Ms O’dine said.

The wait for a donor could be months and while Ms O’dine has found “immense” support in the nursing staff, fellow patients and families and Heart Kids SA, there are bills back home.

Family friend Jodie Battey set up a GoFundMe page on Friday for the family as they wait and prepare for Dexter’s impending surgery – and for bringing him home.

Those looking to support the O’dine family can find the fundraiser here.

Originally published as Mount Gambier teenager Dexter O’dine waiting for double heart, kidney transplant as family’s bills pile up