Lauren Seiders

Lauren Seiders’ two brothers—her twin Owen, 3, and Ethan, 8—chased and captured “the princess” and imprisoned her in a tower (actually their parents’ bedroom, but perfectly acceptable for pretending). Their mother discovered the boys sneaking a tray of food to their fair-haired prisoner and came to her rescue.

Such play once seemed like a fairy tale to Lauren’s parents Jim and Suzanne Seiders. In her three-and-a-half years, Lauren has had extensive medical issues, leading to a multivisceral (multiple organ) transplant in December 2008 that involved the replacement of six organs.

Lauren and Owen were born May 26, 2006. Both babies seemed fine, but by mid-August, blood work showed potential liver problems in Lauren. Her physicians at Riley Hospital for Children diagnosed biliary atresia, a condition in which the bile ducts do not develop normally.

Thus began a series of nonstop medical challenges, and Lauren spent her first birthday in the intensive care unit. Clarian Transplant Director of Intestine and Multivisceral Transplantation Rodrigo Vianna, MD, performed Lauren’s first liver transplant July 11-12, 2007, and another on July 26. The second transplant was Lauren’s seventh surgery in two weeks. She went home on September 23, 2007.

She continued to have problems. “Lauren was very sick,” Dr. Vianna says. “After undergoing two liver transplants and multiple surgeries, she developed a condition we call frozen abdomen, where the organs adhere to each other. She also had extensive thrombosis of the mesenteric system and renal failure causing organs to shut down and making
additional surgeries very difficult.”

Only a handful of transplant centers have the capability to handle what Lauren needed next—the operation to give her a new stomach, pancreas, liver, kidneys and intestine.

“A multivisceral transplant procedure is complex and can take anywhere from six to 12 hours to complete,” says A. Joseph Tector, M.D., Ph.D., chief of transplantation. “Our transplant-dedicated surgical team has done more than 60 of these procedures. I liken our team to a symphony playing a masterpiece,” Tector says. “Each of us has a role to play, and it’s harmoniously complex.”

Lauren returned home from her December 8 surgery on January 27, 2009, and has continued to overcome complications. Last fall, she was diagnosed with a lymphoma that can be common in post-transplant children; four weeks of chemo yielded positive results. In mid-January, she had surgery for an incarcerated hernia. She bounced back again and returned March 1 to her preschool at First Baptist Church in Indianapolis, where she is the only girl in her class. “These boys will get a lesson on how to treat women,” her mother laughs.

While the team at Riley Hospital and Clarian Transplant can take credit for saving Lauren’s life, Dr. Vianna prefers to give kudos to Lauren and her family for their steadfastness and good will. “Her family is exceptional,” Dr. Vianna notes. “They are extremely dedicated to Lauren’s care, especially her mother.”

The Seiders in turn are grateful for the “wonderful people” that Lauren’s illness has brought into their lives, from a donor family in Michigan to Clarian and Riley staff. They also have become
supporters of the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA), a Bloomington, Ind.-based nonprofit that guides communities in raising funds for transplant patients to ease the overwhelming financial pressure on families.

Parents have hopes and dreams for their children, and Suzanne Seiders can’t help becoming emotional when she considers hers for Lauren. “A year ago, I would have said, ‘I just want her to live.’ Now we’re in such a better place, I want her to thrive, be happy and spread her story because she is the most determined little thing. She teaches us not to give up, because you never know what God has planned for you.”