For long term posters - I received an email from Coopin, letting me know that little Elijah got his miracle and has received a four organ transplant in the last week. He has a new small& large intestines, liver and stomach. At the moment he is heavily sedated and has to be strapped down but he he is hanging on in there.
Apparently his story has been all over the tv, including nationally. I will post more news as it comes.
This article was printed in a local paper at the end of December:
INDIANAPOLIS — Carrie Griffith, mother of Elijah Griffith, who recently endured a multi-visceral transplant (liver, stomach, pancreas and intestine) at Riley Children’s Hospital, Indianapolis, said her two-year-old son is doing okay right now. Travis and Carrie Griffith, formerly of Martinsville, have moved to Worthington, and Carrie has been staying with Elijah almost around the clock. The young couple has another son, Jacob, 11 months.
Elijah was born prematurely and doctors told the parents in September that unless he received a multi-organ transplant, he probably wouldn’t survive six months because of a failing liver and colon. His mother described him as a happy and active child despite the tubes attached to his body. The 12-hour surgery was performed in late November after the organs became available. The toddler will remain in ICU at Riley for the next few weeks.
“We had a scare a couple of days ago,” Carrie Griffith said. “Elijah’s stomach got distended on Sunday, Dec. 12, and doctors did an X-ray, which showed that a couple of loops of his bowel were inflamed. They went in Sunday afternoon and did an exploratory surgery and found the outer layer of his intestinal walls in some places had “adhesed” together. They said that happens sometimes after organ transplants.
Griffith said her son’s bowel had become kinked, and surgeons snipped the pieces apart and sewed Elijah back up. They had to cut the surgery short because his blood pressure was getting too low. “They took him back up to ICU, but he wouldn’t stop bleeding. They had to do an emergency surgery because Elijah’s stomach cavity was swollen and full of blood,” Griffith said.
“They got him cleaned out and put 100 more stitches in and he was fine. He lost two liters of blood while all this occurred and he almost died. I don’t even think the doctors thought Elijah was going to make it. I sure didn’t,” Griffith commented. “I thought I had lost my little boy. He is so strong, though, that he pulled through and is still on the ventilator.”
Griffith said Elijah went back to the operating room again this week. Surgeons didn’t close the muscle layer when they took him to surgery last time, and they want to check on his intestine. Elijah is also experiencing some rejection. “I don’t think it’s severe, and the doctors don’t seemed worried, anyway,” Griffith said.
She noted that Elijah’s medical team would do a scope this week, and if he still showed signs of rejection on the biopsy, they would put the child on another immunosuppressant (drug to suppress the immune system). “Hopefully, that will take care of the problem,” Griffith added.