At just 2.5 years old, child receives double kidney and liver transplant

This is a unique case in France: a two and a half year old child affected by a rare genetic disease benefited from a double liver and kidney transplant. Operated on September 1 at Necker hospital in Paris, young Mathéo returned home to Maine-et-Loire after almost nine months of hospitalization, according to information from West France.

Double transplant: a major intervention for a young child

Since birth, the child has been affected by methylmalonic acidemia, a rare metabolic disorder, which impairs the body’s ability to process certain fats and proteins. When he was two months old, the first symptoms appeared: Mathéo’s kidneys no longer worked, and he had to receive dialysis every day to keep him alive. After a few months, this support is unfortunately no longer enough. His kidneys are only functioning between 30 and 50%.

Emergency surgery in Paris, the child underwent nearly three operations in the space of 48 hours. His mother then decided to stop working and move to Paris to stay with him. Last January, the latter and Mathéo’s father learned that he had to undergo a double kidney and liver transplant, a major operation, especially given his young age. This procedure also has a particularity: the organs must come from the same donor. As it is impossible to donate a liver during one’s lifetime, unlike a kidney, the child’s parents cannot be donors.

An operation awaited for “almost a year”

On August 31, the family finally received the call telling them that a transplant was possible. “We were stunned to receive the call we had been waiting for almost a year”explain Émeline Soullard, Mathéo’s mother, in Ouest-France. The little boy was operated on the next day for thirteen hours. His parents can visit him at the end of the day. “He was plugged in everywhere, with big scars and people watching him all the time, it was impressive“says his mother.

Since then, Mathéo has left the capital and returned to his home in Maine-et-Loire. However, the child continues to go to the hospital every week as part of his follow-up and must take around twenty medications per day.

His parents, however, have one worry: that the child’s body will reject the kidney transplant. “The liver regenerates, it will be fine (…) The kidney is a sword of Damocles, we don’t know when his body will have decided that it no longer wants it”confides the little boy’s mother. If this scenario arises, the parents are ready to donate a kidney to their son if they are compatible.