A DESPERATE mum is fighting to save her two-year-old son who needs a liver and bowel transplant to live.
Jade Earaker, 23, has watched little Zachary Bradford undergo over 30 surgeries since he was born at just 28 weeks after his bowel perforated in the womb.
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He lost most of his gut through his first surgery, meaning he has to be fed through tubes, which has caused him to be diagnosed with liver and intestinal failure.
The mum-of-two, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, had to put her son on the transplant list for a new liver and bowel in August 2022.
After one year on the list and six unsuccessful matches, Zachary became too unwell to wait for the size match donor that he needed for the bowel transplant and his only option was to use a liver from an adult donor.
In August last year, Zachary’s family were “absolutely over the moon” when they got to call to say the hospital had a match, and thought it was going to be “the life-saving gift he so desperately needed”.
However, despite the surgery being a success, Zachary devastatingly contracted sepsis at a critical moment in his recovery which has severely damaged his new liver.
And it has meant that Zachary, who will turn three in October, has been forced to re-list for the multi-organ transplant that he needs to survive.
He’s the happiest little boy, everyone who meets him just falls in love with him – he’s so smiley and happy and blows kisses at the nurses, he’s a little charmer!
Jade Earaker
But with the cruel nature of bowel transplants, the option of an adult donor is unavailable and Zachary will need organs from a child donor.
Jade, who also has a one-year-old son, Reuben, told the Scottish Sun that the whole family has been left heartbroken to be back at “rock bottom”.
She said: “Zachary is my absolute superhero. His new liver absolutely saved his life and we will always be grateful to the selfless donor who gave him a second chance at life.
“We simply wouldn’t have Zachary with us today if it weren’t for them. But now we are absolutely devastated to be back to what feels like rock bottom again with an insurmountable hurdle to climb.”
The mum, who was studying paramedic science at university but dropped out to look after her son, said they basically had to move into the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.
Jade said: “He’s the happiest little boy, everyone who meets him just falls in love with him – he’s so smiley and happy and blows kisses at the nurses, he’s a little charmer!
“Everyone is just in awe of him, he’s famous around the hospital since we live there basically. He only got home for the first time this year.
“It’s been really tough, we have a normal life with Reuben and we struggle with life with Zachary, I can’t split myself in two but I try!”
Jade, who recently got engaged to the boys’ dad Rhys, 28, said they do everything they can to make every day special for her kids.
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She said: “We make it work – it’s really difficult but we power on for the sake of the kids.
“I’d never change Zachary for the world – I’d make him healthier and give him my liver if I could, but he’s back on the list for a bowel and it needs to come from a pediatric donor.
“Life has just not been what I expected it to be, it sounds horrible but nothing prepares you for it.
“You go to your first scan and expect everything to be well and good and then two and a half years later we’ve been living in a hospital.
“I dropped out of uni, and maybe when Zachary is better I’ll go back, but I was 20 when it all happened.
When Zachary got home for the first time we made the most of it. We went on a holiday to Disneyland Paris – we just booked it within days because you just have to take every day as if it’s going to be the last
Jade Earaker
“It was a lot to take on, it was a very young age to have a difficult life, my friends are all out partying and I’m waiting for a transplant call for my child – it’s not what you expect.
“I’ve had to mature very quickly, I’ve had conversations that no young adult should have to have.
“I’ve had to advocate for my child and argue for him because if you don’t fight for them no one will and that’s the harsh reality as a medical family.
“It really opens your eyes, I was doing my nurse training before paramedic and it puts perspective how hard it is for people to live in a hospital.
“It’s not a life, it is difficult and I sympathise with everyone who has done it because I’ve experienced it first-hand.
Who can become an organ donor?
SCOTLAND has a system of ‘deemed authorisation’ for organ and tissue donation. This is often referred to as an ‘opt out’ system.
This means that if you haven’t opted out of donation when you die, the system allows for the donation of certain organs and tissue for transplantation. This only applies if you’re 16 or over.
The system doesn’t apply to particular groups. It also doesn’t apply if it would be against your views.
If you die in circumstances where you could become a donor and have not recorded a donation decision, it may be assumed you are willing to donate your organs and tissue for transplantation.
But your family will always be asked about your latest views on donation, to ensure it would not proceed if this was against your wishes.
You still have a choice if you want to be a donor or not. The best way to record your donation decision is by registering either an opt-in or opt-out decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register.
Whatever you decide, share your decision with family and friends, as they will still be involved in the donation process.
Knowing what you would want to happen makes it easier for your family or friends and helps them to honour your decision.
Anyone living in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man can register a decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register, there is no age limit, and parents can register their children.
Having an illness or medical condition doesn’t stop you from registering your organ donation decision, and specialist healthcare professionals decide in each individual case whether organs and tissue are suitable for donation.
If you don’t want to make an organ donation decision yourself, you can nominate someone to do it for you in the event of your death.
Credit: NHS
“We’ve spent so many birthdays and Christmases in hospital and sometimes it’s like we don’t acknowledge these days and it just forms into one, things like holidays and birthdays – these are not the important things in life. You just want the transplant day.
“We do everything we can and we have to push and push. We try and take them places – when Zachary got home for the first time we made the most of it.
“We went on a holiday to Disneyland Paris, we just booked it within days because you just have to take every day as if it’s going to be the last.
“It’s a horrible way to live but it’s the only way or you’re just miserable.”
But Jade is now urging all families to talk about organ donation – no mater how old, or how young, someone is.
With child organs being so hard to come across, Jade is hoping that by sharing Zachary’s story other parents could consider donating their baby’s organs if the worst happens.
She said: “Zachary is only 9kg, he’s really small so he needs basically baby and toddler size orans. It’s really hard to put the point across that children need child-sized organs.
“We just want to raise awareness of it so people can have these conversations and consider it before God forbid something happens.
“It’s very touchy subject and it’s so hard to ask people to consider it because we’re not asking for children to lose their lives, we just want people to think about what if they ended up in a situation like ours?
“It’s absolutely horrific and no one wants to think about losing a child.
Unless you have a sick child then it’s hard to really understand what it’s like to be in our position. We’re trying to save our son
Jade Earaker
“It’s really horrible when any family member dies but a child… it’s even more horrible because they’re new to life and they have their whole life to live, and to consider the possibility of that being taken away is horrific and I so appreciate that.
“Even as a mum to Reuben, he’s a healthy one-year-old and that puts it into perspective for me – it would destroy me if anything happened to him, and if someone asked me to think about donating his organs and I hadn’t been in this situation with Zachary I’d be like ‘Oh my God, you can’t ask me that, that is so it’s intensive and so hard’.
“But I think it’s so important to have these conversations raise awareness before something happens because then it wouldn’t be at a time when the topic was so sensitive.
“Unless you have a sick child then it’s hard to really understand what it’s like to be in our position. We’re trying to save our son.
“People don’t know what to say to us or how to comfort us. But all we ask is for people to take a step back and think what would you do in our position?
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“You would take an organ in a heartbeat to save your child so why not think about it and give someone that chance if God forbid the worst happened.”
Anyone looking to register as an organ donor can do so here.
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