Markus DeJong is a lucky little boy. At two years old, he has received the best gift anyone could ask for…a new liver!

He was healthy at birth but after three weeks became irritable and wouldn’t sleep.

His skin colour was jaundiced and when it got worse, his parents sought help.

“He was green like Baby Hulk,” said Tanya Dejong, holding her son at his bedside.

He was diagnosed with a tumour that kept growing and threatened to become cancerous. Time was a factor.

On Nov. 6 his father, a 30-year-old oil worker in the southern Alberta city, gave Markus part of his liver.

The waiting list for a donor was up to two years and tests showed he was a compatible donor.

It came to the time that they had to do it,” he said. “His health could have faded quite drastically.

“The tumour was the size of a mandarin orange and it was pressing against the kidneys, causing blood-flow problems.” It’s the most fabulous gift that a parent could give at the holiday season. Markus got discharged out of hospital on Christmas Eve,” said hepatologist Susan Gilmour, the doctor in charge.

Gilmour said while Markus will be on drugs the rest of his life to prevent his body from rejecting the transplant and must continually guard against infections, he should be able to lead a healthy, normal life.

“They’re in preschool, they’re in school, they’re in swimming lessons, they belong to Cubs. We have patients who are on select hockey teams,” she said.

Gilmour said the procedure is somewhat rare - only about one in four child patients have a parent who is compatible in blood and size to be able to donate a liver.

In 2005 there were about 50 liver transplants done on children in Canada. The average number per year is 35 to 40.

The average wait time for liver transplants for children in the Edmonton health region is nine months. For adults in Canada it’s about two years.

The latest data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that 3,914 patients were on waiting lists for an organ at the end of 2003, a slight decrease from the start of the decade. Patients waiting for a kidney transplant comprised three quarters of the waiting list.

The data showed that 250 patients - the equivalent of five a week - died while waiting for new organs, including 100 waiting for a liver.

SOURCE:CANADA.COM

A 6-pound infant is recovering from a rare surgery in which doctors removed a racquetball-size tumor from her heart the day after she was born.

Anne Therese Felts was in serious condition Wednesday, four days after undergoing the 2-hour surgery at Riley Hospital for Children, where doctors had been preparing for the operation since the tumor was discovered in October during a routine ultrasound.

Cardio-thoracic surgeon John Brown said the tumor was 11/2 to two times the size of the baby’s heart — which is about as big as a plump strawberry. Only 46 other similar cases, called cardiac teratoma tumors, have been recorded in medical history, said Brown, who led the operating team.

“Of all the ones we’ve looked at in the literature, this was the largest in size,” he said. “The shadow of the heart and tumor went from one side of her chest to the other.”

Her parents, Paje and Chris Felts, said the past few weeks had been a “gigantic episode” in their lives.

“I cried a lot,” said Paje Felts, the little girl’s mother. “Of course, we were scared and upset.”

She said she’s been able to hold her daughter, who was born Thursday and is on a ventilator, only once.

Initial tests showed the tumor to be benign, and any microscopic tumor cells left behind generally won’t grow, said John Brown, chief of cardiac surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

“Her future should be very positive,” said Brown, who led the operating team.

No newborn should have to go through such a tramatic surgery just after birth, but it is good they found the tumour early and it didn’t cause any long term effects.

SOURCE:MSN,INDYSTAR

PHOTO CREDIT:Frank Espich / The Star

Mother of three, Angelina Jolie has been depicted as the Virgin Mary in a painting by Kate Kretz, due to be revealed at Art Miami Fair tomorrow.

While I think she is doing a great job overseas with her humanity work and she is probably a great mother, the Virgin Mary she is not.

What has this world come to? Just because you are beautiful and you have a beautiful baby that doesn’t make you a “sacred biblical figure”.

Angelina herself would probably find this amusing knowing her rebellious background before having children.

We really need to rethink what is worthy of being placed on a pedestal. There are parents in this world who have children that are not able to communicate or move freely without assistance. They work endlessly with them for hours just to see little progress or a small smile. These are the people we should be putting up on pedestals, not movie stars.

Over at babygadget.net they have a fabulous art table for your artistic child and obsessive compulsive parent.

Art time can be messy and it can also take up the whole house. This great table keeps everything in one place with a few added conveniences.

Available at rosenberryrooms.com for $199 this table has it all. A paper towel holder, 2 - 50″ paper rolls with cutter, a drying rack, shelving for your supplies and enough table space for you child and a friend to create a masterpiece or two.