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Toddler doing well two years after transplant

Lily Hague-Wautier, 2, survives near-fatal liver disease
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In 2013

In 2013, a liver disease left baby Lily Hague-Wautier of Abbotsford on the brink of death, with a transplant being her only hope.

She received that transplant from her mom, Hailey Wautier, who had 22 per cent of her liver (which has since regenerated) removed for the procedure.

Lily also received blood vessels from a deceased donor.

The two-year anniversary of the surgery takes place on Aug. 22, and Hailey reports that Lily is doing remarkably well.

“She has successfully managed to get by with not a single admission for anything to the hospital – any sickness or step back with the transplant,” Hailey said.

Lily currently takes two medications, which she will be on for the rest of her life, compared to the 13 she was taking when she left the hospital after her transplant.

Hailey said Lily has since caught up with all of the developmental milestones with which she had fallen behind during her illness, and is in the 90th percentile for her height and weight.

She is almost talking in full sentences.

“Her doctors and team that see her at transplant clinic appointments regularly are amazed at how well she is doing and how well she caught up to being a regular toddler.”

The News first reported Lily’s story in December 2013, when she was 11 months old.

She was born on Jan. 5, 2013 with a liver disease called biliary atresia, which had progressed to a critical state by March of that year.

Doctors told Hailey and her spouse Mark Hague that Lily would likely survive only three more months without a transplant.

Lily was placed on the waiting list for a deceased donor, but a new procedure and different protocols in Toronto enabled Lily’s parents to be considered as possible donors there.

Hailey’s surgery was performed at Toronto General Hospital, and her liver was placed in a container and walked across the way through an underground tunnel to be transplanted into Lily at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Hailey said Lily is now doing so well that, when looking at her, it’s impossible to tell that she was ever that sick.

“Lily continues to amaze me and is one very special toddler,” she said.

 

 



Vikki Hopes

About the Author: Vikki Hopes

I have been a journalist for almost 40 years, and have been at the Abbotsford News since 1991.
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