Having survived both COVID-19 and a liver transplant, both before his first birthday, Kasen Donerlson is considered a “miracle baby.”
“It’s been very, very stressful,” Kasen’s mom, Mitayah Donerlson, told “Good Morning America.”
“But his recovery right now is going so sweet and so smooth that I can’t ask for anything more.”
Kasen, of Syracuse, New York, was born, according to Donerlson, on Jan. 14, 2020, weighing a healthy eight pounds. Due to respiratory problems and jaundice, he spent a few days in the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU), which Donerlson said doctors told her would change as he grew older.
Donerlson said she pursued further tests for her son when Kasen’s health did not improve. The baby was diagnosed with a serious case of biliary atresia around two months after his birth, a disorder in which, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, bile ducts in and around the liver are scarred and blocked (NIDDK).
Kasen underwent emergency surgery just a few days after his diagnosis to restore his bile ducts. But the operation proved ineffective, according to Donerlson, who soon discovered that a liver transplant would be necessary for her son.
“We had endless hospital visits and we would be there for five or seven or 10 days because of the severity of the disease and the complications that Kasen was having,” said Donerlson, adding that Kasen had to be placed on a feeding tube. “He would have fevers that wouldn’t come down.”
At UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, about a five-hour drive from the family’s Syracuse home, Donerlson, who also cares for her 4-year-old son and 5-year-old niece, was able to get Kasen on the transplant waiting list.
In November, Donerlson said she, her significant other, her niece, and Kasen all tested positive for COVID-19 as Kasen was waiting for a liver to become available.
According to Donerlson, who, along with her family members, did not experience any complications from COVID-19, Kasen spent about three days in the hospital, but his only complication was a fever.
Just two weeks later, at the beginning of December, Donerlson received the call she’d been waiting for for months—that Kasen had a liver.
According to Dr. George Mazariegos, chief of Pediatric Transplantation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, when Kasen underwent the transplant in early January, he weighed just about 10 pounds more than his birth weight.
After the nearly 10-hour transplant operation, Donerlson said she found an instant improvement in Kasen.
Prior to his first birthday, Kasen Donerlson, of Syracuse, N.Y., survived both COVID-19 and a liver transplant.
Kasen is supposed to have a long, normal, and healthy life with his new liver after he spent most of his first life sick and hospitalized, according to Maraziegos.
On Jan. 14, he celebrated his first hospital birthday and is now gaining weight. Donerlson described him as more active and “perkier”post-transplant.
“They made a way for Kasen, a way for my baby, to have a second chance at life, a life that he was not promised to see,” said Donerlson. “I’m just thankful for them.”
Source: Good Morning America