Posted on 09/02/2005 9:50:36 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
MIAMI - A 19-month-old Japanese boy who underwent a six-organ transplant is finally going home, months after the life-saving operation that could not be done in Japan because donated organs are not available there for young children.
In his yellow T-shirt, Yosuke Ohashi squirmed and laughed and playfully banged his head on a conference table at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Pre-Transplant Office.
"Before the operation, he was almost dying," Yukiho Ohashi said of his son. "He was suffering very severe jaundice," and other symptoms.
Yosuke had a condition that limited his intestinal function and caused his liver to deteriorate. He underwent an 8 1/2 hour transplant of his liver, pancreas, stomach, small and large intestines and spleen at the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
Ohashi looked toward Tomoaki Kato, the University of Miami surgeon who led the transplant team during the Christmas Eve, 2004 surgery, and said, "He made a miracle."
"Happy," said the boy's mother, Yoshie Ohashi. She and her husband will depart Sunday for Japan with Yosuke and his twin sister Luna.
Kato has been monitoring Yosuke's progress over the nine months since the surgery. "He had one episode, what could have been a complication," Kato said of his young patient, "but he is now ready to go" to Japan.
Japanese law does not allow children under 15 to become organ donors, a measure enacted to protect the rights of children.
While it is not against Japanese law to receive organs, "Without a donation, you cannot be a recipient," said Omar Montejo, spokesman for the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Ohashi, a businessman who raised more than $1 million (euro800,000 million)
for his son's surgery in Japan and Chile, where the family had been living before the surgery, said he hopes to speak out on behalf of young Japanese patients like his son, when the family returns home. His goal is to help change laws and make organ donation by children more acceptable in Japan.
"Many, many children are waiting in Japan. I hope this success will make a positive impact in Japan. I hope many children could be saved," the father said.
The surgery has become less grueling for children and for the surgeons who perform the operations, Kato said. As recently as 1995, a multiple-organ transplant took 30 hours.
With Yosuke, "We took the damaged organs out, then we took everything as a package (of organs) from the donor and put it in his body."
"The children have been given a much better chance," as surgical techniques have improved, Kato said.
Currently 30 to 50 transplants per year are performed at the University of Miami hospital.
some background
Japanese baby recovering after six-organ transplant in Florida ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1321787/posts
Baby Recovers After Quadruple Organ Transplant ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1297914/posts
Japanese baby recovering after 6-organ transplant ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1323146/posts
Yosuke Ohashi, 19-month-old, center, looks at transplant surgeon Dr. Tomoaki Kato, right, in the company of his mother Yoshie Ohashi, left, during a news conference at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Friday, Sept. 2, 2005, in Miami. Ohashi, a Japanese boy who underwent a six-organ transplants in Miami, is finally going home, months after a life-saving operation that could not be done in Japan because donated organs are not available there for children under 15. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
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