Madi’s story
In September 2008, 5 year old Madilyn was constantly feeling sick and tired, so her doctor referred her to Sydney Children’s Hospital. Madi was diagnosed with a very rare form of kidney disease – only 3 or 4 people in a million have it.
She was already close to renal failure, giving her and her family little time to prepare for the effects of such a rare and life-changing disease. Madi was put on dialysis for 12 hours a day to clean her blood, had to be fed through a tube and spent Christmas in Intensive Care.
After a 14 month wait on the donor list, the family received that long-awaited phone call that a kidney donor had finally been found for Madi. Within 12 hours of the call, Madi had been admitted for kidney transplant surgery and was recovering in Intensive Care.
Madi’s body initially accepted the kidney, which she nicknamed ‘Mrs Kidney’. However, on Easter Friday her body acutely rejected the new organ. Hospital staff went into overdrive to care for her. There was only one nurse on call over the long weekend that had the skills to perform the plasma exchange that Madi desperately needed. The nurse rushed to the Hospital to carry out the essential procedure, saving Madi’s kidney.
Madi’s family say this is just one example of the kindness and compassion that they were shown during their time at the Hospital. “We are so grateful to the brilliant renal team and surgeons at Sydney Children’s Hospital for their dedicated work on Madi’s transplant. The long hours they put in behind the scenes working extremely hard has made such a difference to Madi’s life,” says mum, Natalie.
After a few ups and downs with the new kidney, Madi is now back at home with her parents and playing with friends at school – accompanied every step of the way by her new life companion, ‘Mrs Kidney’.