Meet Khai
Khai loves trains and building tracks – but what he might just love most of all is dancing! Dance parties are his jam! Thanks to his Stollerific transplant team, Khai can continue to bust a move.
Khai was born with gastroschisis, meaning his stomach didn’t close all the way and his bowel and stomach were outside of his body. He spent 80 days in the NICU at the Stollery where he had a successful gastroschisis closure procedure. Two months after he returned home to Grande Prairie, Khai’s belly started getting bigger and his breathing became laboured. He and his mom were flown back to the Stollery immediately and Khai went straight into surgery where experts discovered he was in end-stage liver failure and a liver transplant was his only option.
His mom was ready to donate her liver to save her son. Unfortunately, Khai was so sick his body wasn’t able to grow big enough to withstand the surgery and accept his mom’s liver. Khai’s team decided a multivisceral transplant – a transplant of more than one organ at the same time – was his only option. Just 12 hours after being listed, Khai’s mom got the call that there was a donor and organs were available. Khai had the bottom of his stomach, his liver, gallbladder, pancreas, colon and small bowel transplanted, along with his spleen being removed. It was an 11-hour surgery and everything went as planned. In addition to being full of immense gratitude towards his donor family, Khai’s mom is grateful to have the Stollery just a short flight or drive away.