Welcome to Katie‘s fight! Katherine “Katie” Duffey has been a fighter since she was two months old. At that time, she was diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome. This is a rare form of kidney disease that required a kidney transplant. Two and half years after her diagnosis, we were blessed to have Katie‘s Dad give her his kidney. Since the transplant, her kidney has been working great with one hiccup: six months afterwards she developed a form of lymphoma called PTLD. This is a type of lymphoma that can form after transplants. She fought through that and after six months of chemo completely beat the cancer! The next four years were great as far as her health. She did have to get through the pandemic, but overall, we were thrilled that she was feeling like a normal kid again. She started up school last January and I would say that is her favorite thing to do right now. Going to school.
Unfortunately, after a beach trip this summer, Katie was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis. Since then, she has been in and out of the hospital with painful pancreatitis flare ups. Due to this, she was referred to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital pediatric pancreas care team. They decided to perform a surgery called TPIAT in order to take out her pancreas, gallbladder, appendix and possibly her spleen. After they remove her pancreas, they will extract the Islet cells from her pancreas and re-infuse them into her liver. If things go well, up to a year later, her body should start re-creating insulin to some degree.
On January 17, the TPIAT surgery took place with astounding results! Katie’s pancreas provided 30% more cells than the average procedure which floored the doctors and truly was an answered prayer. The doctors now think she will have a 70% chance to not be a Type 1 diabetic after one year. They also did not have to remove her spleen which is rare for this procedure and a HUGE relief due to her prevous medical history. This was the news we wanted but Katie does have a long road ahead of her and could use your continued support. She will be in Cincinnati for the next 6 weeks and traveling back and forth to Cincinnati for some time to come. Thanks in advance for your support please keep the well wishes, thoughts and prayers coming our way! We will need them!
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.