Girl, 7, survives ‘miracle’ organ removal surgery

Heather McNamara, 7, was discharged from a New York hospital on Tuesday after a daring, high-risk operation last month in which doctors removed six vital organs so they could take out a baseball-sized tumour that had invaded her abdomen and threatened her life.

The marathon Feb. 6 operation lasted 23 hours. It was the first of its kind in a child and the second in the world, said the lead surgeon, Tomoaki Kato. In effect, the young cancer patient was both the donor and recipient of her own organs.

At a press conference on Tuesday Heather’s parents thanked the hospital staff for giving them back their little girl. When asked if she was anxious to go home and sleep in her own bed, Heather turned to her parents and said “actually, I’m sleeping with you guys.”

“She’s doing fantastic,” her father, Joseph McNamara, of Islip Terrace, Long Island, said as the two played Old Maid in her room at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, noting that she spent from 10:30 am to noon in the hospital’s school for pediatric patients.

Kato’s team removed and chilled the child’s stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver and small and large intestines as they would for transplantation, so they could be restored after the tumour was taken out. “This was a very high-risk procedure,” Kato said. “It was a big responsibility. I was very nervous.”

The transplant specialist said the cancer had spread so widely that the girl’s stomach, pancreas and spleen couldn’t be saved. In place of her stomach, Kato’s team fashioned a pouch from intestinal tissue to hold food before it moves into the small intestine for digestion. The loss of her pancreas turned the child into a diabetic who will need insulin injections and digestive enzymes.