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Osmond youth receives birthday gift of a life-saving transplant

OSMOND — An Osmond boy, who has dealt with intestinal issues for years, has finally received a lifesaving multi-organ transplant. On Oct. 10, Danny Anderson, an eighth grader at Osmond Community School received a new liver, pancreas, small bowel and colon. The transplant — which has been his birthday wish for the last five years — came just days before his 15th birthday.

According to his mom, Mary, Danny started to get sick around 4 years old.

“We thought it was a virus,” said Mary. Danny saw many specialists during the next couple of years in Omaha, Kansas City and Columbus, OH. After he coded at Children’s Hospital in Omaha, he went to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio.

“They told us to just enjoy the time we had with him,” Mary said. “We came back and his gastroenterologist said he had chronic intestinal pseudo obstruction and sent us to the intestinal rehab program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in 2011. There they tried a couple of things but they did not stop him from getting sicker. We knew in April of 2012 he would need an isolated bowel transplant but thought we had years to go. Unfortunately, his ileoostomy prolapsed in May of 2012 and he lost most of his small intestines. He was listed for his first transplant in August of 2012 and got the call in November of 2012.”

After spending the next 16 months and three weeks in the hospital fighting Post Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder (PTLD) — a cancer that can result from immunosuppressive therapy, also Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and finally rejection, he was explanted Dec. 19, 2014, which means they removed his transplanted bowel. He was relisted for a multi-organ transplant on Sept. 19, 2015. He was listed for a small bowel, liver, pancreas, and colon, Mary explained. She added that, since Danny has had PTLD, his chance is greater that he could get it again.

Since Danny did not have a small bowel, he had to have TPN — Total Parantel Nutrition. Basically, Danny receives all his nutrition through his veins. He had a central line in his chest. The TPN would get shipped weekly from the pharmacy and Mary would hook him up and disconnect him every day.

“The first few years, he was good,” Mary continued. “He had a few hospital stays, the flu, pancreatitis, and pneumonia. His central line clotted a few times and he has to get that fixed, but no major problems until October of 2018.

“At the beginning of 2018, Danny’s liver really started to go. He was very jaundiced. Then he got his first line infection in five years on Oct. 12, 2018. He came home and ended up right back in the hospital on Oct. 15 with a yeast growing in his blood. He spent seven weeks in the hospital and his body really took a hard hit. He came home on narcotics and blood pressure patches. Since then, he has had a line infection every six weeks. His liver was failing. He did not have the immune system to fight off anything.”

Then, in March of this year, COVID-19 hit. “In March of this year, our family

“In March of this year, our family basically went on lockdown,” Mary said. “The hospital told me Danny and his brothers could not be in school and I had to take a leave from work since I worked in the public. This year has by far been the most difficult!”

Mary and her ex-husband moved here from LaVista in January of 2011, right as Danny was getting sicker. When Danny was released to come home in 2014 after the first transplant, the family came back to Osmond; however, her ex-husband left seven days after Danny’s first transplant.

Mary has four boys: Christopher, 23, who works at Osmond Mini

Mart; Connor, 17; Danny, 15, and Dillon, 12. Connor is a sophomore and Dillon is in seventh grade, but Mary had to pull them out of school this year because of Danny’s immunocomprimised status. Danny is in eighth grade.

Mary is now engaged to Chris Ziegenbein; he has a 4-year-old daughter, Addie. Her son and fiancé are taking care of the boys while Mary is in Omaha with Danny. Mary and Danny will most likely be in Omaha until next spring, she said.

Mary has worked at Casey’s in Pierce for more than three years. “That was my escape and how I handled all the stress from Danny being sick,” she said. She hopes to go back once all this is done — the transplant and COVID-19.

Mary expressed her thanks to the donor and their family, whose choice gave Danny a second chance at life.

Since the day she received word that Danny was going to get the transplant, Mary has been posting details and his progress on a Facebook page, “Super Dannys New Tummy.” It follows the journey they have been on — including the exciting call they received Oct. 9, the 12-hour surgery and the ups and downs ever since as his body adjusts to the new organs.

On Saturday, Oct. 31, Mary shared more exciting news — Danny had no TPN running because, for the first time since he was a little more than 3 years old, his bowel was working perfectly!

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