Penelope: The Medical Miracle
Doctors call her “a medical miracle.” In this video, the family of one-year-old Penelope talks about her battle with biliary atresia and how a collaboration with Cincinnati Children’s and Akron Children’s has led her on a healing path.
Penelope’s journey included multiple treatments and procedures. Before the liver transplant, she had a KASAI procedure, a surgical procedure that removed diseased bile ducts including her gall bladder and replaced them with a section of her small intestine.
Soon after her Kasai procedure, she experienced heart failure due to a ventricular septal defect (VSD), a hole between the heart's right and left pumping chambers.
To address this, she underwent open-heart surgery to close the hole—a challenging procedure given her ongoing liver issues. Thanks to the expertise and dedication of the heart team, the surgery was successful.
Her liver disease progressed and became liver failure, followed by a kidney failure. Penelope had liver dialysis or MARS therapy on top of kidney dialysis. She also needed paracentesis, a procedure used to remove excess fluid from the abdomen.
Penelope also has undergone multiple imaging scans. This includes CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, ECHO, and cardiac catheterization.
She experienced a brain stroke after the liver transplant with some small bleeding spots inside of her head.
Despite all the challenges, she has overcome her health problems and has ongoing outpatient clinic visits for follow-up care.
