A LITTLE boy has defied all odds after he beat cancer and received a liver transplant all before the age of three.
Billy Twitchen endured a number of horrific medical conditions before his third birthday that many might not face in their lifetime.
But the Netley Abbey boy astounded both his family and medics who had feared on many occasions he wouldn’t survive.
Billy, who is now five years old, has just started school, and his parents, Laura and Alec, have shared his story.
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At just 18 days old, his parents noticed his skin had begun to change colour - a sign of jaundice.
He was rushed to Southampton Children’s Hospital and, after two days of tests, was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia – a congenital condition that causes a blockage in the ducts (tubes) that carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder.
Many young patients do not usually live past two years without a liver transplant.
Billy was transferred to King’s College Hospital in London at just a month old where he had an operation to replace the blocked bile duct.
He was allowed to return home but he became unwell again with a sickness bug in December 2017 and was admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Southampton Children’s Hospital.
In February 2018, he was registered on the national transplant list after an extended stay in hospital.
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Five months later, while anxiously awaiting a donor liver, his parents received the call that no parent ever wants to receive.
Laura said: “We were staying at Ronald McDonald house and the phone rang late at night – my heart stopped as that could mean only one thing.
“We were told to get to the ward as quickly as possible as Billy had stopped breathing – I remember a horrible feeling of ‘it’s the end’ running through me.”
Doctors managed to revive Billy and he was transferred back to hospital in London where he underwent a liver transplant four weeks later.
Billy's operation was a success and he was able to return home where he started six months of isolation and recovery.
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But the nightmare wasn't over for Laura and Alec.
Billy’s body started to swell rapidly and was suffering what was thought to be an anaphylactic shock in May 2020.
Billy was diagnosed with Stage 3 Post-transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder (PTLD) cancer - a type of cancer than can develop when transplant patients who are taking immunosuppressive drugs to prevent the rejection of the transplanted organ.
One of Billy’s clinicians, Dr Tracy Coelho, consultant gastroenterologist at Southampton Children’s Hospital, said: "In Billy’s case, if left untreated, the cancer would most definitely have killed him.
"So, the decision had to be made to withdraw his immunosuppression drugs, which were protecting his liver from rejection, and treat the cancer.”
Billy endured four rounds of gruelling chemotherapy treatment, two when he was still in a medically induced coma and then two more while a patient on the oncology ward.
Alec said: "Billy has been through a lot and because of this he hasn’t hit all of his milestones, including learning to speak at the rate of other children his age.
"But he’s doing really well now though and talking much more. We’re so proud of him."
Billy was just one of over 200 children who typically face spending the festive period in hospital – and that’s why the Twitchen family are encouraging Hampshire residents to support Southampton Hospitals Charity this Christmas.
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