Tree-year-old brother saves Gwynedd boy's life
Dec 27 2010 by Owen R Hughes, Daily Post
Shane Firth and little brother Jaydon
A SCHOOLBOY who had a life saving bone marrow cell transplant from his three-year-old brother is fighting back to health after months of gruelling treatment.
Football mad Shane Owen Firth, 13, said he was “proud” of little brother Jaydon, now aged four, after he saved his life.
Shane was diagnosed with life threatening aplastic anaemia 16 months ago after unexplained bruising appeared on this skin.
The disease, which means the bone marrow does not produce sufficient new cells, devastated his life, leaving the previously active schoolboy housebound.
Last summer it was discovered his little brother Jaydon could hold the key to his recovery as he was a suitable bone marrow match.
The two brothers, from Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, started treatment last August with Shane first going into isolation with mum Amanda and dad Jason at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.
Chemotherapy killed off his own bone marrow cells and Jaydon was then brought to the hospital, with 30% of his bone marrow transplanted into Shane.
Weeks later doctors gave the wonderful news that Jaydon’s bone marrow had not been rejected.
Mum Amanda, 33, said: “Jaydon doesn’t understand what he has done but he knows he helped his brother. One day when he is older he will realise he has saved his brother’s life.”
For Shane the last four months have been an ordeal. He had to spend 13 days in isolation as his immune system had been killed off by the chemotherapy.
Amanda said: “After 13 days there was a flicker that his immune system was back which is what doctors had been waiting for.
“He has been through an ordeal, there were days when he was so sick.
“As parents it was awful to watch your child so ill.
“We never knew he would be so ill, I was glad we were naive because if we had known beforehand we would have been even more worried.
“Hard though it was we had to do it. If we had not we were told Shane may not have lived the year.”
Weeks after the transplant Shane had blood removed to test the cells.
It found that his original bone marrow had been killed off and that the only white cells left were from Jaydon’s bone marrow.
He remains on anti-rejection drugs and has to follow a strict diet and is restricted on going out in public over fears he could get an infection.
Amanda said: “It had gone as well as we could have hoped and he is already much better. I am very proud of them both for what they have done. Shane has got angry because he can’t do what his friends are doing but he has got on with it.”
Shane, a pupil at Ysgol Ardudwy, Harlech, said: “I am very proud of my little brother.”
“The last year has been rubbish but now I feel so much better, I can run again without being out of breath.
“I didn’t enjoy last Christmas because I was worried about what would happen to me, I can now enjoy this Christmas.”
Shane still requires weekly visits to Ysbyty Gwynedd and Alder Hey and will remain off school for several more months.
Amanda and Jason thanked all the doctors and nurses at Alder Hey and Ysbyty Gwynedd, Dr Liz Whitehead, nurses Eleri and Rachel, her mum and dad and the whole community of Penrhyndeudraeth, and everyone who rallied round to raise money for the hospitals and Shane.
She said: “I can’t thank everyone enough for what they have done.”
2010-12-27
Tree-year-old brother saves Gwynedd boy's life - North Wales News - News - Daily Post North Wales
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