GASTROENTEROLOGY, HEPATOLOGY AND NUTRITION
Chris

Age 18, liver transplant

Health issues prevented Chris from playing sports when he was growing up. Instead, he spent a lot of time behind a computer keyboard. His hobby led to a lucrative Web designing business for this gregarious teenager. Chris’s client list, which includes a custom homebuilder and a movie producer, is impressive.

“I figured out I could create something really cool that people can use and enjoy,” he said. “It’s amazing how far I’ve gotten by word of mouth.”

Though sickness has been the norm for Chris—beginning when he was born weighing less than 2 pounds—it hasn’t defined him. Described by his dad as remarkable and a computer whiz, Chris runs his Web business, keeps up with school work, mentors other chronically ill children, travels across the country to watch his younger sister Sarah perform onstage, attends his sister Emily’s volleyball games and keeps up with friends across the country through Facebook.

Life for Chris is full and promising, but as an extremely premature newborn his life hung in the balance. Within the first few weeks after birth, Chris developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a gastrointestinal disease that usually affects premature babies. As a result of the disease, Chris had to be fed by total parenteral nutrition (TPN), directly infusing nutrients to his bloodstream and bypassing the intestinal tract. Bacteria from NEC caused a hole to develop in his intestine.

In addition, Chris’s liver couldn’t process blood because TPN destroyed his liver. As a result, blood built up in his spleen and in pockets in his throat. A severe blow could have been fatal. In the first 13 years of his life, Chris had 13 surgeries, including removal of two-thirds of his intestine as an infant and a liver transplant as a teenager.

At 13, he not only learned that he needed a new liver, he also learned he had developed Type I diabetes.

“It’s ironic, but finding out I had diabetes was a worse blow than the transplant," he said. "Needles really bother me, and diabetes was just one more brick to add to the stack.”

“It has been a little more than five years since Chris’ liver transplantation,” said Dr. Saul Karpen, director of Texas Children’s Liver Center and the medical director of Texas Children’s Liver Transplantation Program. “He is healthy and active with no signs of organ rejection.”

The anti-rejection pills he takes daily, Chris says, are a small price to pay for the good health he has experienced since his transplant.

“The transplant made life so much better because I don’t have to worry about what could happen,” Chris said. “The crew at Texas Children’s is fantastic, and I’m always amazed at what they can do. At Texas Children’s, you are always working with some of the best people in the country.”