Help Baby Walter and his Family this Christmas

I have set this page up to help my beautiful friend Jess and her family during what has been and will continue to be a very difficult time as Baby Walter struggles with Biliary Atresia.

Baby Walters Story!

Walter's 'road to better health' journey started back in mid-April of this year when he was only 9 weeks old. Even though Walter has been ill since birth it wasn’t brought to the family's attention until a routine visit to the maternal child health nurse. The nurse told Walters mum that he appeared to be a little jaundice and to keep an eye on it.

A couple of days later she took Walter to visit a doctor as she had a feeling something was not quite right. His doctor said he needed blood tests done urgently which were completed and by 2 pm that same day Walter’s mom got a heart breaking call from the doctor saying she needed to take Walter straight to the emergency department at the Royal Children's Hospital.

After a gruelling week in hospital with multiple tests conducted daily, a diagnosis for Walter was finally confirmed with a liver biopsy that he had biliary atresia. Biliary atresia is a very rare liver disease that effects the bile ducts of the liver. It is a life threating condition and requires a surgical procedure called a kasai and/or liver transplant.

Walter had his kasai procedure on the day he turned 12 weeks old which was April 27 2016. He had a rocky road to recovery as he ended up with a bowel obstruction in two places and 5 days post kasai he needed another operation to fix his bowels. They were able to take Walter home 3 weeks later and that was a happy day! However within 48 hours Walter developed a temperature which took them back to the hospital for an additional 7 days. He was suffering from his first case of cholangitis which is an infection in and around the area of the bile ducts. Unfortunately this was the first sign that his kasai procedure had failed. It was then confirmed he had a failed Kasai 6 weeks post operation and it wasn’t long after that they were told Walter needed to be worked up for a liver transplant.

By the end of August Walter had been officially activated on the Victorian-Tasmanian liver donor registrar. He had his first 'dummy' run in early September. This is when the liver transplant coordinator calls and tells the family they have a liver for Walter. Their call came around 11pm but after going into hospital and getting him already for his operation they received a call around 5am telling them that unfortunately the liver couldn't be split. They went home... It was a good 'practice' run.

By the end of October, with no prospects of a donor liver in sight and Walters condition only getting worse Walter’s doctors asked Evan and Jessica to consider a living related donor for Walter. Evan and Jessica are both blood matches for Walter and decided to proceed with this option. Evan completed the work-up to be a living donor first and was successful! This was the best news they could have possibly received and it was very exciting.

The doctors are confident that Evan’s liver can be split during an operation that lasts around 8 hours. Once split they will immediately transfer the split liver by police car to the Royal Children’s Hospital and transplant it in Walter. Here in Australia the operation Evan will be having is very rare and has only been conducted twice before. Walter will be the third recipient and Evan the first Dad to split their liver for their child.

The two surgeries will happen on the same day and are scheduled to go ahead on the 6th of December if a donor does not come through. Evan’s recovery will include 7-10 days in hospital and then home for 2-3 months off work while his body heals. Walter will be in the ICU for at least a week pending any complications and then up on the ward for an additional couple of weeks where his mom will be staying with him.

I will post more updates in the lead up to the operation and post operations.

During this difficult time Walter family will be under significant financial strain as Evan will be unable to work for up to 3 months.

Any donation made will go directly to the family to help with ongoing living expenses, medical expenses, loss of income, mortgage repayments, child care fees for their 2 year daughter, hospital meals, parking and insurances.

Any donation would be greatly appreciated.