'My kidney has given our son life'

by CHRIS BROOKE, Daily Mail

Kyle Green has never gone on holiday or larked around with friends.

The simple pleasures most youngsters take for granted - such as eating a chocolate bar - have been denied the two-year-old because of a serious kidney condition.

Now his 34-year-old mother Joanne has given her youngest son one of her kidneys - and the chance of a normal life.

The operation to transplant an adult kidney into a two-year-old is rare. His mother's kidney is about twice the size of an ordinary toddler's.

But despite the problems, surgeons were delighted with the tenhour operation at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Two weeks after surgery, mother and son are doing well and continue to recuperate in hospital.

"He has accepted the kidney and the doctors are really pleased," said Mrs Green. "It's fantastic to think we will soon be leading a normal life.

"I'm his mum and it's something I had to do. I was terrified before the operation, but there was no question of me not going through with it. I'm still a bit sore and tender, but I'm up and about now."

Kyle was diagnosed with kidney failure when he was just two days' old. Doctors discovered his kidneysperformed only five per cent of their normal function and he faced a miserable future of dialysis.

Mrs Green and her husband Richard, 34, a soldier with the Royal Anglian Regiment, were told his best hope was a transplant.

When Kyle was six months old, both parents were found to be a suitable match.

Mrs Green was chosen for the operation because of her size, but she had to wait until he reached a sufficient weight for the transplant to go ahead.

Meanwhile, the youngster was prone to infection because of a poor immune system. He was fed only with a specially-formulated milk, pumped through a tube into his stomach and given drugs to stabilise his condition.

Kyle, who only started walking in April, could merely watch as his eight-year-old brother Ryan ate an ice cream or went swimming at the local pool.

Mrs Green, of South Kirkby, West Yorkshire, said: "Fortunately for Kyle he doesn't really know any different, though there have been times when he has wanted to eat sweets that Ryan was eating. Despite his illness he has always been a happy child."

Since the operation, he has been given a chocolate bar. "He just kept putting it into his mouth. I'm not sure if he really appreciated it," said Mrs Green.

"It's going to be a very long, slow process of weaning him off his baby food and on to solids - just like any other baby.

"I feel so honoured that I can do this for my son and we can finally get on to live a normal life.

"I'm a bit scared to look to the future and wonder what it will be like."

Malcolm Coulthard, a child kidney specialist who led the transplant team, said fewer than five children under two receive adult kidneys each year. Of these, only 'one or two' are from parents.

The operation was possible because Mrs Green's kidney was transplanted into a different place in Kyle's body. His minute kidneys were left in and her kidney was put at the front, instead of the back, of his stomach.

Mr Coulthard said: "The kidney just sits inside the stomach and there is always room for more in there so size doesn't matter.

"Sometimes it will look a bit swollen for a while, but the child grows into it."

c.brooke@dailymail.co.uk