Girl Gets a New Chance at Life, Thanks to an Organ Donor

Charlotte the cat was trying to sneak out of the house.

But 9-year-old Alannah Shevenell wasn’t having it.

“Don’t give me that look,” Alannah said, according to the Portland Press Herald, her hometown newspaper.  “I know that look.”

Charlotte might be eager to get out and explore the world.

But for Alannah these days, there’s no place like home – especially after three months in the hospital.

On October 28th, Alannah made medical history.

Not only did she get an esophagus transplant – the first esophagus transplant ever, according to published reports.

She also got five other new organs – a new stomach, pancreas, liver, spleen and small intestine.

It was a complex, 14-hour operation at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

But without it, Alannah almost certainly would have died.

She reportedly had a rare type of tumor – a tumor that was slowly strangling her organs from the inside.

Before the surgery, she couldn’t eat or even swallow, according to the Boston Globe.

And she was getting weaker and weaker.

Even with the operation, “She was afraid she was going to die,” said Alannah’s grandmother, Debi Skolas, in an interview with Globe reporter Martine Powers.

Finally, after 15 months of waiting, doctors at Children’s Hospital called Alannah’s family in Hollis, Maine, last October 27th, and told them there were donated organs waiting for her.

She had to get to the hospital for the operation – the very next day.

“Doctor Kim, he saved me,” Alannah told the Globe, referring to her transplant surgeon, Doctor Heung Bae Kim.

It took three months for Alannah to get well enough to leave the hospital.

She reportedly needed a follow-up operation because of complications.

But on February 1st, she was finally well enough to go home.

“This place hasn’t been the same without her,” her grandfather, Jamie Skolas, told the Press Herald.

Alannah still has limitations.

She reportedly takes nearly 25 pills a day – pills designed to keep her well and keep her body from rejecting her new organs.

Those medications weaken her immune system.

So Alannah will have to stay home for now, so other people don’t make her sick.

Instead of going to school, she has a tutor.

There are certain foods she can’t eat and certain activities she can’t do, such as swimming in a lake – not that you’d want to do that during the winter in Maine, anyway.

But eventually, Alannah’s doctors and family expect her to lead an almost normal life.

If you watched the Nick News show called “A Gift of Life” last year, then you know how difficult it is to find donor organs for kids.

Some kids wind up waiting even longer than Alannah – even for one organ.

And some kids wait until it’s too late.

Alannah’s grandmother knows how lucky Alannah is.

And she’s well aware that another child had to die in order for Alannah to live.

“I still cry when I think about it,” her grandmother told the Associated Press.

“Somebody lost a child and made a really courageous decision,” she added, speaking with Press Herald reporter Kelley Bouchard.  “There are a lot of pieces of that child alive in Alannah.”

The hope now is that Alannah – and all of her pieces – will be alive for many, many years to come.

When a reporter asked what she likes best right now, she had a simple answer.

“Being home,” she said.  “Just being home.”