After a long hospital stay, an Alberta family says a donor has been found to help their 13-month-old daughter complete a rare surgery.
Back in October, doctors in a Calgary hospital discovered that then-one year-old Lukah Mitchell had a large tumour in her abdomen and required surgery.
Her parents, Tanis and Dakota Mitchell from Okotoks, Alta, were told the tumour had been the source of her recent health problems. They also learned their daughter would need a series of operations to replace several of her affected organs.
Lukah was airlifted to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton to receive the donor organs in October. But it wasn’t until Sunday when a donor was found to help her complete the multi-visceral transplant she needs to live.
Doctors in Western Canada have performed the rare surgical procedure fewer than ten times, CTV Calgary reported.
On Monday morning, Lukah’s mother posted a photo on Instagram saying how “this journey is consistently blowing my mind, it’s shaking me, teaching me and growing me.”
“She’s laying in the same spot she was in when we got here eight weeks ago, where we were told she wouldn’t make it through 12 hours,” Mitchell wrote. “I never thought I’d be smiling so much in the ICU [Intensive Care Unit]. Doctors and nurses are hugging us and gawking over our little warrior.”
Through her Instagram page, which has nearly 20,000 followers, Mitchell has been documenting her daughter’s progress. On nearly every post, other parents regularly offer up their support and kind words.
A GoFundMe page on their behalf, set up to help raise money to cover expenses, has already raised over $50,000.
