A seven-year-old Arbroath boy placed on high priority has woken after undergoing a vital liver transplant.
The family of Kenzy Oliver made a frantic trip to London on Friday night after receiving word a suitable replacement organ had been found.
After hopping on an air ambulance from Dundee Airport, Kenzy was checked into hospital where he underwent six hours of surgery.
As of this afternoon, the youngster has woken and now faces a tough period of recovery.
Kenzy’s mum Michelle revealed: “He isn’t 100% awake as he keeps dozing but I knew the first thing that he would ask for would be juice then he’s saying he’s hungry.
“Going to be a tough four/five days of nil by mouth.
“The staff are going to have their work cut out as he’s already tried to take out his feeding tube and is not impressed with the oxygen through his nose. Everything is going in the right direction so far.”
Despite the complex nature of Friday’s operation, doting mum Michelle told Kenzy’s army of social media followers that things are going well.
She said: “That’s Kenzy out of surgery and in recovery, get to see him in half an hour or so.
“Kenzy got a full left side of a liver at a good size that fills most of the space provided.
“He had a full blood transfusion as left cut livers bleed more at the cut but nothing unnormal for his operation and is expected in all kids transplants.
“He is being left in a sleep state for today to minimise any movement and stress to his new liver and should be woken at some point tomorrow.
“So now only time will tell on how it will take and how fast of a recovery he will take.
“His surgery has taken 6/6.25hours to do which is relatively a good time for something so complex.”
Kenzy was born with biliary atresia, a condition in which inflammation develops within the bile ducts around the time of birth. How he contracted it is unknown.
He was placed as a high priority on the transplant list after a check-up at the beginning of the year revealed the liver condition he was born with brought on a serious breathing complaint.
The seven-year-old is the only case Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital has seen with both debilitating ailments, according to his parents.
