LIVER transplant recipient Mackenzie Argaet has come a long way since her transplant operation two year ago, and her parents Letice Carswell and Guy Argaet are thrilled at the extent of her progress.

The couple were living in Young when they discovered their baby daughter was seriously ill with biliary artresia, a rare gastrointestinal disorder in newborns where the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the intestine are destroyed.

“It is a big relief,” explains her mother, Letice, “ you hear so many stories about bad things that can happen, we are so thankful she has made a really good recovery.”

Letice reports that Mackenzie is doing all the normal two year old activities, including riding a bike, playing with her big brother Lachlan and even throwing the odd tantrum.

“She is doing everything normally just as a child her age, let alone as a transplant child,” she said.

The family is now living in Canberra, closer to capital city medical attention both in the ACT and Sydney, but they remain thankful they were in Young at the time of the operation, where there was so much help for the family on a financial and emotional level.

Among those whose help proved invaluable were the Lions Clubs from Young and Queanbeyan.

Mackenzie’s operation has also won international acclaim for her surgeon, Dr Albert Shun from The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, who used an unorthodox method to keep the portion of adult sized liver he inserted from placing pressure on Mackenzie’s blood vessels.

This situation could have been fatal, and Dr Shun was the first person to use a ping pong ball for this purpose.

While operations using ping pong balls had occurred previously overseas, and have since followed in Australia, none have left the unusual medical apparatus in the patient long term, whereas Mackenzie’s liver is growing around the ball and has not caused infection.