Remembering one of Boston Children’s earliest liver transplants

When Michael “Mick” Devlin was born in 1987, his parents were sure of two things: They loved him, and they would cherish every minute they had together because no one knew how many they had left. Mick was born with ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, a genetic disorder that disrupts the liver’s ability to break down protein and eventually leads to a toxic build up of ammonia in the blood. It’s a very serious condition, and when Mick was born there weren’t many sustainable treatment options for OTC deficiency. Many children with the disease died. Needless to say, when Mick’s parents Cathy and Michael held their newborn son and learned about his OTC deficiency, they were terrified. And while they didn’t know it at the time, their son would soon be one of the first children in New England to receive a successful liver transplant—a surgery that would eventually save his life, and the lives of thousands of children to follow. A sad but familiar story Unfortunately, Mick wasn’t Cathy and Michael’s first child born with OTC deficiency. They had had a son a year before who was born with the disease, but doctors couldn’t identify it in time to provide treatment. He passed away at just a few weeks old. When Cathy became pregnant with Mick, she and Michael arranged it so their second child would be delivered at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which has direct access to Boston Children’s Hospital. This way, ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: All posts Liver transplant our patients' stories Pediatric Transplant Center (PTC) Source Type: news