Alannah Shevenell: The Girl With Six New Organs

Alannah Shevenell is a nine year old girl from Maine. Her story started when she began to run high fevers and loosing weight in the year 2008. Doctor's investigated only to find that Alannah had an aggressive tumor (Sarcoma). They attempted twice to remove this aggressive tumor which only resulted in it spreading further. The tumor had affected Alannah's esophagus, liver, stomach, spleen, pancreas and small intestine. When Chemotherapy also failed to beat this tumor organ transplant was the last option. All of these organs needed to be removed as the tumor began strangling them and limiting their blood supply. Ultimately resulting in organ death.

Alannah waited a long time on the organ donor's list and finally in October Doctor's were prepared to perform the surgery. It was said that Alannah only had a 50% chance of surviving the surgery. But without that surgery she had no chance at surviving as the cancer was too aggressive. Therefore, her family made the choice to have six of Alannah's organs removed and replaced with new ones.

This extensive surgery took 14 and a half hours to perform at Boston's Children's Hospital. And thankfully it was successful. Doctor's agreed that the organs looked good and everything seemed to be in working order.

Alannah spent another three months in the hospital relearning to eat as she had been fed by a feeding tube to her stomach for so long, fighting off infections and other complications that come with such an extensive surgery.

Alannah was finally given the O.K. to go home and begin to live as normal of a life as possible. Unfortunately, there is still a chance that the tumor could make a come back. And she now has to take anti-rejection medications to prevent her body from rejecting the new organs. But Alannah is finally home and is now able to live a relatively normal life.