Life

Inspirational story of 3D kidney transplant girl Lucy Boucher

Anne Hailes

Anne Hailes

Anne is Northern Ireland's first lady of journalism, having worked in the media since she joined Ulster Television when she was 17. Her columns have been entertaining and informing Irish News readers for 25 years.

Lucy Boucher from Glengormley – the first person in the world to have a kidney transplant using 3D printing – with her mum, dad and big brother
Lucy Boucher from Glengormley – the first person in the world to have a kidney transplant using 3D printing – with her mum, dad and big brother Lucy Boucher from Glengormley – the first person in the world to have a kidney transplant using 3D printing – with her mum, dad and big brother

THE tributes have been very touching and genuine and it’s no wonder, Terry Wogan was a special man, a spiritual atheist who had a deep faith in humanity and a love of his fellow man and woman.

I had the delight of meeting Terry in the green room after one of his BBC television chat shows. Gloria Hunniford introduced us and I remember no more about the programme, the guests or what I said but I do remember this comfy, humorous man who lent into my life for a short time and it seemed to me there were only the two of us in the world. No wonder his guests told him their innermost secrets – usually.

Like so many others, I was totally absorbed in his gentle aura and thankfully his voice will live on in my memory.

A FOND FAREWELL

I WONDER what he thought of Big Brother? I fell foul of it some weeks ago and got hooked – what a puerile programme. Worse, a programme that corrupts the mind like a virus in a computer. I can just see the production team sitting round a table thinking: ‘Where can we take it now? What depths can we plunge?’

Why did I keep watching it? Because it was fascinating. What was going to happen next? Who was going to be ‘AVICTED’? (And now we’re having the America and local ‘ALEXTIONS’ coming up). And as for the language...

I am so glad it’s over and I don’t intend getting hooked again – once is enough. Also, the fact that there is so much advertising for betting online, gaming and casinos, is surely a dangerous thing. There seems to be no regulation any more, anything goes and, like a virus, it enters brains and corrupts.

NEVER GIVE UP

LUCY Boucher is rapidly becoming a worldwide personality and she’s only three years of age. This little girl from Glengormley has weathered the most difficult and complex of illnesses.

From a straightforward birth, she thrived, eating and sleeping well and the apple of her parents eye. Within weeks she developed a cold and soon needed urgent medical attention and was rushed to Antrim Area Hospital. Her body was being starved of oxygen, her kidneys were at risk and she suffered heart failure.

“We said goodbye to her four times that day,” Chris Boucher told me. “They said they could do no more for her and the plan was to transfer her to the Children’s Hospital at the Royal. Although she survived the journey she continued to deteriorate.”

Nothing was having an effect and it was suggested to Chris and his wife Ciara that they might like to have Lucy Christened. You can only imagine the pain. Chris’s dad, a retired Methodist minister, baptised his little grand-daughter using the only thing at hand, a bottle of Deep River Rock.

Still the fight for her life went on. It was arranged that Lucy be taken by helicopter to Freeman Hospital in Newcastle Upon Tyne where there was an advanced dialysis machine that could cope with the various complications. Months were spent in hospital with her parents close by.

Eventually the little body began to repair, except for Lucy’s kidneys. When she was just over two years of age there was talk of a transplant and when he was tested, it was discovered that Chris was a perfect match.

“My only worry was how on earth could my big adult kidney fit into her tiny body.” Nothing was left to chance. In Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, in a new pioneering technique a 3D printer produced replicas of the organ and the area of surgery and so it was determined how to proceed.

To achieve a successful outcome required one of the delicate machines being adapted to work with such a tiny body. This was done and the advanced technology will now give hope for other ill babies in the future.

Now, after pioneering surgery, Lucy is looking forward to to full and happy life. And she’s a pioneer in the true sense of the word, the first child in the world to take part in a transplant in which 3D printing was used for a successful transplantation of an adult kidney into a child.

Lucy knows she has her daddy’s kidney growing inside her and that it’s making her better – indeed the two often compare scars!

At the moment she still wears a nasal gastric tube which boosts calories and nutrients but every day she eats more and grows stronger. Her big brother, five-year-old Daniel, keeps an eye on her and the family are getting used to being stars in America, Australia, Italy, Finland, Ireland and Britain.

The press officer at Great Ormond Street had warned them that there would be a flurry of publicity for a few days but has been back to say the story has gone viral throughout Europe and round the world. Lucy takes it all in her stride, charming everyone who comes to visit.

There are still regular check-ups at the Royal where the staff know and love this little girl. They shed tears when she left for Newcastle, they realised how ill she was, how the toxins in her body were hampering her growth and denying her a normal life. Now she has a fully functioning kidney, she needs check-ups but no dialysis. She’s bouncing, full of fun and looking forward to going to nursery school.

Miracles happen.

More at donatelife.co.uk or contact the Live Donor Co-ordinators at 028 9504 8293 or 028 9504 9437.

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