Double liver and kidney transplant. The patient? Baby just two years old!

An unprecedented surgical intervention in France: a double kidney and liver transplant in the case of a child of only … two years.

He could go to school in September 2025. “What was “unthinkable” a few months ago is now “possible” for Mathéo‘s little family. It is thanks to a double liver transplant and A kidney transplant was successfully performed on a two-year-old child, an unprecedented intervention in France for a patient of this age, reports HuffPost.

Mathéo was in the hospital from January 2024 to Necker Hospital in Paris waiting for this copy transmission. The Ouest-France publication describes this work, unique in France, as the only solution for the little patient, who suffered from a rare genetic disease: methylmalonic acidemia.

It is a disease that has poisoned Mathéo’s body, preventing him from absorbing protein properly.

Diagnosed very early, the child had to be hospitalized at the beginning of the year. His condition quickly required a double transplant from the same donor. So began a long wait for him and his parents.

Successful transfers, but…

“I received the call for the transplant on August 31,” says Émeline, Mathéo’s mother, to Ouest-France. On September 1, the child entered the transplant intervention that lasted … 13 hours.

“We were surprised” when we received the call that the transplant we had been waiting for almost a year could be done, “the mother recalls. During this time, the a child connected to many devices, with large scars and many doctors who were constantly monitoring him, says the mother.

And although the operation went well, Mathéo had several problems after this double transplant. He had to be taken to the operating room twice because of blood circulation problems. At the beginning of October, the first distribution was started. But unfortunately not everything went as planned.

The drug that prevents graft rejection after the transplant causes her to have ‘excessive tremors’. New problems also arose which delayed his return home to Maine-et-Loire until mid-October.

“Everyday life is still as hard as before”

To return to everyday life, however, it is clear that this obstacle course is not over for Mathéo and his parents. Because, in addition to the many “restrictions” for a child of his age, he has to go once a week to the Necker hospital and the hospital center in Tours.

“He is not allowed to use public transport, to see too many people, especially children…” says Matheo’s mother, who also reveals that the liver transplant makes him a “vegetarian”. And the restrictions don’t stop there. “The liver is regenerating, it will be fine. But the kidney is a Damocles sword, we don’t know when Matheo’s body will decide to reject it.”

While a new kidney is needed, Matheo will be able to return to a normal life by next year. The doctors are confident and hope that Matheo will be able to be, along with other children, in the first year of school in September 2025. Until then, this “active child” needs constant attention and he must take at least 20 medications per day. “We are at home, but daily life is still as difficult as before,” said his mother, who says she is ready, if appropriate, to give Matheo a kidney when needed.