Çağatay Baby Survived With The Organ He Received From His Aunt
Yasemin Topçu (19), a university student, came to the rescue of Çağatay, a 10-month-old baby weighing 5 kilograms and in need of an urgent transplant in Izmir. Embracing her nephew, who recovered rapidly with a transplanted piece of his liver, the young aunt said, “There is no one happier than me in the world now that my nephew is back to life. I could not take the exams, I lost the semester, but I won my nephew.”
The couple Arife Topçu (30), a housewife, and Okan Topçu (31), a security guard, living in Datça district of Muğla, welcomed their son Çağatay on October 23, 2023. The baby, who was born weighing 2,550 grams after an uneventful pregnancy, started to turn yellow after birth. When the problem, which was thought to be temporary newborn jaundice, did not go away even though the baby was two months old, the couple went to the doctor. The baby's liver enzymes were found to be high in the tests of the baby, who was referred to a university hospital from Datça to Marmaris and then to Izmir. Biliary atresia (absence of bile ducts) was diagnosed and it was revealed that the jaundice of the baby did not go away because of this. The baby underwent casai surgery at the age of 61 days to ensure bile flow from the liver. After this operation, the baby's health, which had been good for a few months, started to deteriorate again. While his parents were experiencing difficult and fearful days for the baby, who was losing weight, crying constantly, jaundice and pain increased, he was referred to Acıbadem Kent Hospital Liver Transplantation Department by the pediatric gastroenterologist under their control. An urgent transplant was decided for the baby whose condition worsened. The mother, father, uncle and aunt volunteered, but the only suitable donor among them was Aunt Yasemin Topçu. Aunt Yasemin Topçu, a first-year student at Muğla University Sıtkı Koçman University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Public Administration, lay on the transplant table without hesitation. Prof. Dr. Murat Kılıç, founding head of Acıbadem Kent Hospital Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery Department, Assoc. Dr. Cahit Yılmaz, Opr. Dr. Kamil Kılıç, Opr. Opr. Dr. Rasim Farajov, Assoc. Dr. Mert Akan, Uzm. Dr. Alihan Pirim and Uzm. Dr. After the transplant performed by the team consisting of Dr. Özgür Bolat on June 24, baby Çağatay started to recover rapidly. A few days after the transplant, the donor was still in intensive care for a week, and a month later Çağatay baby was discharged with a cure.
Without the transplant, we could have died within three months
Prof. Dr. Murat Kılıç stated that the baby, who was brought with the diagnosis of biliary atresia, was in very poor health when he entered the transplant and said: “Months before the baby came to us, when he was 61 days old, he underwent surgery for bile ducts, but it did not help. When he came to us, he was 10 months old and weighed 5 kilograms. At the time of transplantation, he had very significant liver failure and growth and developmental retardation. His lungs were also affected due to liver failure (hepatopulmonary syndrome). This aggravated his growth and developmental delay. Without transplantation, we would have lost him within 3 months.
Since children under 6 kg. have a high risk of transplantation, we normally wait for the babies to grow a little more, but in this baby, due to the severity of the disease, we could not tolerate waiting, so we performed transplantation under emergency conditions. Our patient regained his health with a timely transplant without much delay. His aunt was the donor. As it is known, cadaver donations are very low in our country. We perform live donor transplants especially for our patients who cannot wait. We have very strong family ties. In such a case, in addition to parents, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles and uncles almost compete to be donors. This case is one of the most vivid examples of this. This baby needed an urgent transplant and his aunt gave him this opportunity. They are both fine, we discharged them with a full recovery.”
His aunt became my son's second mother
Stating that they shuttled between hospitals and doctors in the process that started with jaundice and ended with the transplant, and that they spent months with unknowns, mother Arife Topçu said, “My baby became very weak, emaciated. And he was a baby who cried day and night and never stopped crying. He was in pain, crying, but we couldn't understand why. We were going crazy. For 10 months there was a child crying. But now, thank God, he just smiles. He gained weight rapidly. Now we realize that we are parents, we are raising a child, we are very happy. We owe this happiness to my sister-in-law, university student Yasemin and our doctors. Yasemin did not take her exams to give life to her nephew, she lost a semester. But she did not say ah for a single day and did not frown. She is now the second mother of my son.”
We learned a big lesson
Father Okan Topçu was happy that his son regained his health and said that this process taught them a great lesson. Topçu said, “First of all, I would like to thank my brother very much. My brother, who had never seen a doctor or a hospital until this age, entered this major surgery without hesitation and gave life to my son. I thank both him and our doctors endlessly. This process taught us an important lesson. Unfortunately, we were not aware of the importance of even giving blood before this happened to us. Both my husband and I will donate our organs.”
I was very happy to be an aunt
Aunt Yasemin, Çağatay's life hero, expressed her feelings as follows: “I was very happy when Çağatay was born. I was going to taste the feeling of being an aunt for the first time with him. But since the day we learned about his illness, we were very unhappy as a family. Most of all my brother and sister-in-law. I felt very bad when I saw their condition. Çağatay never stopped, he was always crying. He was getting worse day by day. I didn't even want to go to their house to see how he looked. The day we learned that my sister-in-law and brother could not be the donors for the transplant, I will never forget the expression on both of their faces. At that moment, I said I would give without thinking, and I am glad I did. Now when I see Çağatay, the world is mine. I love him very much. It is a very nice feeling to be able to touch someone's life. I invite everyone to organ donation. We are very happy now and I would like to thank the entire Acıbadem family.”
