After receiving five organs in a complex transplant, the eight months old boy is ready for his next stride- learning to eat and drink!
The little boy, Elijah Moulton underwent seven hour operation as he was suffering from a rare gastrointestinal disease and received a liver, small bowel, pancreas, colon and stomach.
He was born with total intestinal atresia, an abnormality of the intestines in which a segment of bowel is very narrow or is disconnected from the rest of the gastrointestinal tract, which makes eating impossible.
Though the operation went successful yet he would visit a rehab for the next six weeks so as to learn eating. Also certain complications like organ rejection and infection could be faced by baby during the first six to 10 weeks after surgery, added the doctors.
Only one donor donated all the needed organs that were kept together as a single unit.
The head surgeon, Dr. Dominique Jan, performed the world’s first successful intestinal transplant in 1991, involving two organs. He holds the view that it is possible to go in for safe transplant simultaneously.
