THE parents of a desperately ill baby received the news they have been praying for last night when surgeons confirmed he had survived a ten-hour liver transplant operation.

Lennox Nicholson had only days to live after being born with an incurable bile duct condition.

Doctors told his parents, Simon Nicholson and Amy Robinson, from Guisborough, east Cleveland, that if a new liver could not be found, the five-month old would die on Christmas Eve.

With time running out yesterday, doctors at St James University Hospital, in Leeds, were told a donor organ had become available and immediately rushed the baby into surgery.

Last night, Steve Pollard, a member of the team that carried out the operation, gave Lennox's parents the news they had been waiting for when he said: "It's gone really well."

And he revealed how the donor liver had been used to give the gift of life to another seriously ill adult patient - at the same time.

Speaking to The Northern Echo, Mr Pollard, who is clinical director of the paediatric transplant programme at St James's, said: "It is finished now. We have got the new liver in and supplied with blood."

Mr Pollard praised the work of his colleague, Mark Stringer, who carried out the operation on Lennox and stressed the delicacy and difficulty of the operation.

He said: "Liver transplantation is complex, and children are particularly complex because their vessels are so small.

"Children are often a lot sicker than the adults we see. In Lennox's case, he was very sick and jaundiced and not much bigger than a new-born baby."

Three teams of surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and technicians were involved in the simultaneous operations on Lennox and an un-named woman recipient.

One team prepared Lennox to receive the left lobe of the donated liver. Another team worked on dividing the donor organ into two self-contained, viable portions, while the third team prepared the woman ready to receive the right lobe of the liver.

As the surgery progressed, microsurgical techniques were used to connect the new liver to Lennox's veins, arteries and bile duct.

An identical procedure was being followed in an adjoining operating theatre where the woman received her new liver.

In a statement issued last night, the West Yorkshire trust said: "The Leeds teaching hospitals can confirm that Lennox has undergone his liver transplant procedure.

"This operation has gone as well as we can expect, considering how ill Lennox was prior to the procedure.

"The next 24 to 48 hours will be crucial.

"Our thoughts are with Lennox's family, but also the family who allowed the donation to take place. Their generosity has helped save the lives of several people."

Mr Nicholson, 21, and Miss Robinson, 20, were at the hospital during the operation.

Lennox's grandmother, June Nicholson, was told the news of the transplant by her son.

She said: "We just wanted to open the door and shout out and tell everybody. We are very nervous but also very happy

"Hopefully, this potential donor has turned out to be suitable."

When Lennox was born on June 21, weighing 7lb 1oz, at Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital, he appeared to be healthy.

But within weeks he developed jaundice and chronic liver problems.

An eight-hour operation found his bile ducts were completely blocked.

On Saturday, Mr Nicholson said he and his partner had not given up hope that a donor would be found in time to save Lennox's life.

"We go to bed every night with butterflies, thinking this will be the night he will get his transplant," he said.

Epic operation - 11

Comment - Page 12