Gilbert baby undergoes 3-organ transplant

A 1-year-old Gilbert girl is recovering and doing well after receiving a three-organ transplant earlier this month in Tucson, the first of its kind in the state and the Southwest.

Adrianna Martinez was born without a small bowel, a rare congenital malformation that makes it impossible to digest food. She was fed through an IV, known as total parenteral nutrition, but this led to liver failure.

To make matters even more complicated, Adrianna was born with situs inversus, which means her abdominal organs are on the wrong side.

Tasha Bowman, Adrianna's mom, said doctors discovered there might be a problem during the last trimester of her pregnancy. When Adrianna was 2 days old, doctors told Bowman what the problem was. When Adrianna was 2 months old, doctors told the family she would need a transplant, Bowman said.

"Having this transplant, she'll be able to be like a normal kid, and enjoy all the good food and candy that kids enjoy," she said.

Throughout the past year, Adrianna has been in and out of the hospital, spending about three months total there.

But now Adrianna is doing well after receiving a new liver, small bowel and pancreas from a deceased baby donor during a seven- to eight-hour surgery Nov. 9.

The organs were transplanted en bloc, which means they were kept together as a single unit, said Dr. Rainer Gruessner, professor and chairman of the University of Arizona Department of Surgery and chief of transplantation at Tucson's University Medical Center.

Gruessner was among the team of doctors who performed the surgery and prepared Adrianna for the procedure.

Dr. John Renz, professor of surgery and vice chief of abdominal transplantation, received the organs from an out-of-state hospital and "oversaw the timing of the donor and recipient operations critical to the procedures' overall success," according to the hospital.

Noah Sprygada, a family friend who lives in Maricopa, had originally agreed to donate part of his bowel and liver to Adrianna, Bowman said.

But the day before the surgery, Adrianna's surgeons found out that whole organs from a deceased baby donor had become available.

The organs are smaller and Adrianna was able to receive a pancreas as well, Bowman said.

"We were very excited when we found out," said Bowman, a call center financial services representative.

The surgery went well, and the only anomaly encountered was the complications of the organs being on the opposite side, Gruessner said.

"That didn't have a major impact, just complicated things," he said.

Adrianna will spend at least the next several weeks in the hospital while she recovers. Bowman and Adrianna's dad, Mike Martinez, are taking turns staying with Adrianna in the hospital.

Adrianna will need to be on transplant medication for the rest of her life to prevent rejection.

Although there's still a risk of rejection and infection within the first year after a transplant surgery, Adrianna has already passed the milestone of any technical complications relating to her surgery, Gruessner said.

"She's still in ICU, and we are trying to ween her off the ventilator," he said. "We will start her on oral (food). She's never eaten (normally) and will have to learn how to eat and swallow, but I expect her to eat normally like any other child."

Adrianna will be able to come home to her brother and sister, 11-year-old Dominque Martinez, and 6-year-old Raven Bradford. Both attend Gateway Pointe Elementary School in the Higley Unified School District.

"I'm just really grateful to the doctors and to the family that donated," Bowman said.

Before the University Medical Center was able to perform bowel surgeries such as the one Adrianna had, patients had to travel to Miami, Pittsburgh or Nebraska for the surgery, Gruessner said.

Nationwide, there are about 140 to 160 pediatric bowel transplants a year, and only about 50 to 70 surgeries that also include liver transplants. Only about two to three of those surgeries involve patients with the organs switched, such as in Adrianna's case, he said.

"The combination of everything she had was rare," Gruessner said. "She is among the youngest and the smallest to receive this transplant (Adrianna weighs 16.5 pounds.)

"More than half of patients on the bowel transplant list never will get a transplant because they develop complications," he said. "The timeliness and availability of organs is crucial."