Five years after liver transplant, boy is thriving

A five-year-old boy who received a liver transplant as an infant is thriving, after his parents feared they might never see him again, mbl.is reports.

“We were allowed to say goodbye to Eldur before the operation began, and I knew it might be the last time I saw him alive,” his mother, Kristín Gunnarsdóttir, said. “I had to be realistic, but there was a little hope.”

Eldur Elí Bjarkason needed the transplant when a virus caused life-threatening damage to his liver. His condition deteriorated quickly, and he was flown with his parents to a hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. He became so ill that doctors did not expect him to survive without a new liver.

A donor was found in Rúna Sif Rafnsdóttir, a childhood friend of Kristín’s, who travelled to Sweden. Eldur was on a ventilator and critically ill. His father, Bjarki Páll Eysteinsson, said doctors were worried the night before the operation about whether they could keep him alive and make him stable enough for surgery.

Doctors managed to stabilise him overnight. Eldur’s operation began at 8am and was expected to take 12 hours, but lasted 13 to 14 hours. Rúna underwent a seven-hour operation. The parents were updated every two hours, but after midnight more than four hours passed without a call.

At about 1am, Kristín received a call from Eldur’s surgeon, Markus. “I’m exhausted and can’t talk much, but the operation went perfectly. Everything worked out and the boy is going to be healthy,” he told her in Swedish.

Kristín and Bjarki discuss the transplant in an interview in Morgunbladid’s Sunday edition.