When 6-year-old Angela Bushi’s organs started to fail, her family feared they would lose her – just as they had lost her 18-month-old sister Alicia to liver failure a few months earlier.

“When you see your children in this situation, and there’s nothing you can do, it is so hard,” said Angela’s mom, Valbona Bushi.  “We went through a lot.”

But today, Angela’s organs are functioning better than ever.  thanks to a team of geneticists and surgeons at Holtz Children’s Hospital and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine/Jackson Memorial Hospital, her life was saved after she underwent a combined liver, pancreas, and kidney transplant – the first ever quadruple transplant of its kind performed on a child.

Initially born healthy, Angela developed type 1 diabetes when she was just a year old.  Four years later, she became even sicker, developing flu-like symptoms, which  eventually turned into fatal liver failure.

“This was kind of an unusual combination of acute liver failure and diabetes,” said Dr. Olaf Bodamer, director of the pediatric genetics program at Holtz Children’s Hospital, who eventually diagnosed Angela.  “We knew that her sister had died under similar circumstances, so we assumed that her condition was genetic.  When you go to the medical literature, the list of syndromes that came up to explain her condition was very small.”

Bodamer finally discovered the culprit – Wilcott-Rallison Syndrome (WRS), an extremely rare disease with only 60 known cases in medical literature worldwide.  Those with WRS have a multitude of health problems, including diabetes, liver and/or kidney failure, bone and growth problems, repeated infections and intellectual impairment.

And for the majority of children with WRS, the condition is typically fatal.

After finally diagnosing Angela with WRS, surgeons knew that if they were going to save her life, transplanting just one organ wasn’t going to cut it.

“The risk to her life was from three (different) organs – the liver, pancreas, and kidneys,” said Dr. Andreas Tzakis, chief of the liver/GI transplant program at UM’s Miller School of Medicine and Jackson Memorial Hospital, and one of the transplant surgeons who operated on Angela.  “If there was to be a solution, we knew we’d have to combine these (three different types of) organs into one transplant.  We had several consultations within the team, outside the team, and the parents; and collectively, we decided the transplant was the way to go.”

Angela was placed on a transplant list, and on December 29, 2011, she received the ground-breaking quadruple transplant.  Because of Angela’s small size and the combination of the organs needed, Angela’s new liver, pancreas, and kidneys all came from a single donor.  the organs were left in a “block,” almost as if they were all one organ.  

The surgery was the first to ever be performed on a child – and the first to be used to treat WRS.  Liver transplants had previously been considered to treat the disease, but surgeons never followed through with them for fear of complications with other organs.  but because the surgeons transplanted all the organs at once, the complications were minimized as much as possible.

Initially, Angela started to reject the organs – but the doctors were prepared and treated the issue with anti-rejection meds, and she has since fully recovered. she was discharged from Holtz at the end of February.

Angela no longer needs insulin treatment, and the only evidence of her innovative surgery is a slightly protruding belly, which houses two pancreases, a new liver and four kidneys.

The surgeons hope Angela’s story will not be the only one of its kind and that more transplants like hers can be done in the future.

“The surgery itself might benefit other children who might need this combination,” Tzakis said.  “It might give hope to children with this syndrome – that there might be at least one solution that can prolong their life.  For the first time, we have a sense of enjoyment about this whole process.   Seeing the child looking well and the family being relieved, this is the first time I feel joy for having done this procedure.”

The Bushi family, who live in Jacksonville, Fla., are also joyous to have Angela back home and feeling better.  they said they look forward to seeing Angela live a long and healthy life.

“She’s a normal child again, and we can do everything like normal parents,” Valbona said.  “She even wants to be a doctor when she grows up.”

“Don’t you worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is going to be all right.” -Bob Marley

“Mom says to tell you that now I have the most expensive hair in the house,” my daughter, Coco, tells me over the phone from our home in Georgia. Coco called me as soon as my wife, Margaret, brought her back from the salon where Coco apparently got a major, life-changing, going-back-to-school, radical cut and dye job. For the last 10 days, Coco and Margaret have waited patiently for me to get back from my latest trip to my parents’ place in Delaware to help my mother take care of my father who is living with dementia from a brain injury he suffered last year. but Coco starts her sophomore year in high school in three days, Margaret starts teaching middle school part time the same week, the carpet in my mother-in-law’s room in our house needs to be shampooed, the dog needs to go to the groomer, new furniture needs to be assembled (yes, the same furniture I mentioned in my last post — the one about procrastination), the yard’s a mess, and they needed me back home yesterday.

I tell Coco that I thought her long blond hair looked great already. I ask her what it looks like now, but she won’t say. “OK, then are you even more beautiful than you were before?” I ask her.

“What? I don’t know. It’s cool, though. but I’m not telling you anything about it until you get back and see for yourself,” Coco says. “And Mom isn’t telling you either!” she yells to my wife who’s with her in our living room. Coco’s 15 years old and, like me, has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) and a bit of a problem with her temper.

“Watch your tone, sweetie,” I say over the phone from my parent’s house in Delaware. I’ve got the phone cradled on my shoulder as I clear dinner dishes from their dining room table.

“I’m just kidding around, Dad,” Coco says.

My 87-year-old father glares at me as I take away his dinner plate. I smile back at him. He shakes his head and looks away. He’s been even more confused and irritable lately. My mother thinks the recurring pain from yet another fall he took recently has intensified his spells of dementia. whatever the cause, all we can do at this point is stay as cheerful and calm as possible so that he doesn’t get more agitated and hurt himself again.

“OK,” I say to Coco. “But still that’s your mother you’re talk–…”

The cell phone begins to slip away from my ear, and I press my shoulder and head together harder to keep it from falling as I head to the kitchen with the dirty dishes. For some reason this causes my lower back, which I strained this afternoon pulling weeds in my parents’ yard, to spasm.

“Dad?” Coco asks. “Are you OK?”

“I’m fine, honey,” I tell her.

“For God’s sake!” my father yells. “Stop all this, right now!” He tries to lurch up from the dining room table but he’s stuck halfway, one hand on the table and the other on his wheeled walker.

“Darling, sit back down,” my mother says from the kitchen, where she’s getting ice cream. “Just for a second, OK?”

“No, damn it, it’s not OK at all! why won’t you listen?” my father yells, his voice straining. And ignoring her and me, as he ignores everyone these days, he continues struggling to stand, bending over, teetering dangerously on unsteady legs. 

I know none of this is my father’s fault. He’s suffered a traumatic brain injury, and as a result, he has recurring headaches and back pain, has bouts of dementia and depression, and copes by drinking. but a rush of irrational anger surges through me. I know I’m in an ADD/ADHD overload. I can feel my heart racing and my breath quickening, but I don’t care. I should take a minute, do my deep-breathing exercises, and let the storm settle in my brain. but I don’t want it to settle. though part of me fights to stay calm, the truth is, I want to explode. My cell phone squeezed between my ear and my shoulder, the dirty plates and silver rattling in my hands, I snap. “Stop acting up,” I yell at my father. "And sit back down!”

My mother looks over at me, startled. The only bright spot in all of this is that my 89-year-old mother, who continues to be strong and lucid, seems determined to plow on with good cheer through her 90s. but doing what? being a permanent caretaker for this irritable, demanding man who, lost in his own pain and confusion, lashes out at those, especially my mother, who just want to try to help? why does she let herself be used like this? It’s a terrible, dark, heartbreaking trap that I suddenly have no patience for, and here I am taking it out on my defenseless father.

Over the phone, real concern in her voice, Coco asks, “What’s going on, Dad?” And I realize, as I told Coco a minute ago, that I had better watch my tone. I tell Coco everything’s fine and that I’ll call her right back. I let the phone fall to the carpet, place the plates back on the table, and help my dad get up. but my mother is quickly by me. “It’s all right,” she says with a pat on my shoulder. “Talk to Coco. I’ve got him.” as she holds out a steadying hand for Dad, she tells him, “You should listen to your son, you know. He’s trying to help you.” “Nonsense,” my father says.

I pick up the phone and take the dishes into the kitchen. After the kitchen’s clean, dishwasher cycling, and Mom’s got Dad in his chair peacefully eating mocha java ice cream with a martini on the side, I go to the guest bedroom and call Coco back. I assure her that everybody’s fine in Delaware and that I’ll be getting on the plane home tomorrow.

“I can’t wait for you to come home,” Coco says. “There’s a centipede in the garage you’ve got to get rid of and a huge dead cockroach in the living room behind the couch. And oh yeah, my new bed was delivered. You’re going to put it together as soon as you’re back, right?”

I tell Coco I’ll take care of all that. I tell her I love her, that I’ll see her tomorrow, and to put her mother on. I lie down on the bed. as Margaret and I talk, my breathing and heart rate slow, my back spasm eases, and I feel calmer and a little more human. Margaret says she knows how much my mother and father have needed me. They’re OK now, I tell her; things have settled down. She says she’s sorry to put more pressure on me, I tell her she isn’t.  She’s sorry that they need me so much at home too. “Thank God you do,” I tell her.  as Margaret and I talk, joking and comforting each other, I realize how much I treasure the sound of her voice. And suddenly I understand that my mother isn’t being used. She knows she’s needed by her husband, a man she loves and vowed to have and hold in sickness and in health over 60 years ago, and that means the world to her. Then my anger at my father and the pain his injury and disease have brought us begins to ebb under the influence of my mother, my daughter, and my wife’s gentle voice. 

As I fly home to Georgia the next day, I begin to see that family is a messy proposition, full of conflicting needs, and maybe an ADD/ADHD family is a little messier and more conflicted than most, I don’t know. but I do know that the world can be a dangerous and uncaring place. And I know that to need those you love, and to be needed by them in return, is a profound gift. when you have that, you have proof that no matter how tough the times, every little thing will be all right.

When I walk into the house from the airport, Coco runs down the stairs and jumps into my arms nearly knocking me over and wraps me in a hug. Then she steps back and says, “What do you think?”

Her hair is a little shorter. And deep black. And in the middle front, a purple stripe down each side. It’s not what I would have picked out as a look for her. It’s not anything really that I could imagine. I miss her blond hair. but as she stands there smiling expectantly at me, I can see that she loves it and that when you give it a chance, the black frames her face dramatically and the purple brings out the sparkling blue in her eyes.

“It’s gorgeous,” I say.

First of all, because I know that I’ll get some answers like “Go play with your friends” or “Go to the park/mall/movies/whatever” But I can’t. here is just some extra info that might help weed out the answers I’m NOT looking for. I am 14. I live in a small complex with my two parents who baby me. I am not allowed out of the complex unless it is to go to school. In my complex is a 8 year old who idolizes me, a 3 year old who is spoiled and cries to much, and a 11 year old who doesn’t speak English. No, It is NOT fun to spend all summer with an 8 year old kid and her baby brother, OK? My Mom doesn’t let me have my friends from school over because she claims they ‘distract her’ inside the house, and outside she has to supervise them. and I can’t go to their house because she says she doesn’t know their parents well enough. (I’ve only been their friend for a year.)

Ok. On to the question. My Mom is addicted to WoW. yes. Addicted. her only friend of 10 years has been ignoring her and fighting with her for most of those years. —-I cannot bring them together again, DON’T SUGGEST IT. PLEASE.—- My Dad is a truck driver and goes out of town every summer for the whole summer and when he does, It leaves me alone with my Mom. at first it is great! she works, so I get the whole day to myself to do ANYTHING I want. After first week though, It gets terrible. And It has come to my attention this month, that I most likely have depression from it. My Mom has this guy on WoW who she Is lying to, (saying she is 23, has my name, and the picture she sent him is my sisters) and he calls her Babygurl. I glanced at the computer and the e-mail she was replying to said something like “I’m glad I have your heart. .you’re a great person…etc.” she talks on a voice chat system with him so I cannot even play piano, which I love to do, or even talk to her or else she yells at me. she doesn’t make me supper, and hasn’t been grocery shopping in two months. Thank god my sisters come over every few days and bring me a decent lunch when my Mom is at work. I am VERY tempted to break the discs/hack the account/whatever but I cannot do that. I’m not that kind of person, and even if I was, she would know it was me. I’m the ONLY one who knows her password (Its jumbled letters) she has lightly slapped me for NOT helping her with her game because I was reading, I’m afraid to do anything to her account. how can I get her to spend more time with me? please. I’m desperate.

Could someone also tell me if I might have depression?
These are my symptoms:
~I sleep either 4 hours a night, or 17 hours (approximately) It differs by the day and if my sisters come over.
~I very rarely have food to eat and when I do eat, I eat A LOT. I’m talking nine chicken fingers, and four hotdogs in two hours.
~I have pains in my upper arms and legs. Sometimes something as slight as pulling a blanket over my head is enough to cause pain/make it sore.
~I get mad a lot. I have typed and erased about seven swears in this question because I just get so pissed. And when my family call me lazy cause I won’t clean the house for my mom when she gets home from work, I am so mad I feel like I want to hit them. I’m NOT ******* lazy. I just don’t respect my mom. Why should I ******* clean her house when she won’t even lift a finger to keep me healthy???? And its PAINFUL for me. I get so fatigued so much from it sometimes I just collapse onto the couch and sleep.
~I don’t do the things I like to anymore. I cannot bring myself to right my story, or to even read anymore. And I feel my intelligence is being affected.

Just incase people think I am exaggerating my ‘horrible summer’ this is my schedule. One for near the beginning of the summer, and one near the end.

img119.imageshack.us/img119/1974/…

Please help me. I need advice. And yeah, I guess a bit of this was just venting too. I don’t get to vent that much.

sounds like you may have an imbalance in your serotonin which means you may need to go on an SSRI, best thing to do is make appointment and talk to a psychiatrist or a psychologist.

not getting enough sleep can def have negative impacts on many other areas of life both physical and mental.

Honey, I am going through the same thing. my mom has myspace and goes clubbing. never cleans or cooks. do something crazy. DELETE HER ACCOUNT. i know it is scary. do it. tell your dad. he can talk to her.bring a trusted adult to talk to her. STAND UP TO HER. tell her if she has enough energy to have WoW, she should be woman enough to take care of her kid! bring your friends over, tell her you will break the rules because you learn from her example.and if she
threatens to hit you, tell her you will bring child protective services. that should calm her. tell her if she doesn't grow up, that you will turn her in.

I think you have a lot of pressure.maybe it is Fibromyalgia. look it up on google. I have it because i got if from my depression. get yourself checked. i also feel like hitting my mom and i feel evil, too. but you have depression. you don't deserve this and neither do I. Honey stand
up. I stood up to my molester stepdad and alcoholic dad.

WOW. Im truely sorry to hear about this. Real talk.
Do something to the extreme that will get her attention.
The point to where you may have to go to counseling. and in counseling,
you discover your self.
they put you on medication. and if you take it, it truely helps.
Trust me i would know.
Maybe that would grab the attention of why your "acting" bad is because your missing something.and she is the only thing that can fix it.
Im almost positive if you do something to get to counseling and end up haveing to have group talkings [with your mom and counselor] she may just have the time to pay attention and listen to your heart.and what it been having to say for years. You think? if you really need someone to talk to, just message me. and i would greatly help.

You have a lot of different symptoms. 1) you should probably see a doctor, medical, you are not getting the proper nutrients which can cause a lot of physical problems. You aren't getting exercise either. you are emotionally stressed and yes it would probably help a lot if you could get some kind of counseling. your mother is negligent in providing proper food and well she is just stupid if you ask me. I could understand a mothers fear of something happening to their children when they leave the house but there is a point when they have to start allowing you to make choices and decisions. to allow you to pick your friends and at least have a chance of growing up. I don't know what her problem is but she definitely has some serious issues that she better figure out real soon. Have you or can you talk to your Dad? if you can you had better as soon as possible. if that doesn't work or you don't know how to talk to him then you need to call someone . maybe a crisis center. No child at any age should have to go through what you are going through. get some help. Councilors at school can be good too. You need help. get it!

I am worried that there are side effects and potential long-term health problems.

I am worried that it is addictive.

Why is your Mom giving medication to your daughter?

I have ADHD and the medications i was on were horable i almost killed my sister and I dont rember. that was Rittalin and psylert. (Cant spell it) I am against any medicaton unless it's for something like being sick or infection…

calmsforte.com that is the official website. No one should diagnose and treat anyone except for a physician. I would speak to him/her about what your mom is doing.

Try the natural self help techniques for relaxing and focusing as mentioned in the book CD video being In Control : Natural Solutions for ADHD Dyslexia and Test Anxiety
with Amazon.com

My sister is getting married Friday evening. My mom called this morning to tell me that she has the flu. it started yesterday and she feels horrible. She feels even worse since therer are so many things she needs to do to get ready for the wedding. I told her she just needs to rest and drink lots of fluids for the next 24 hours especially but can anyone recomend any over the counter medicines that might work to ease some of the symptoms for her like tomorrow and tomorrow evening until the wedding? is there anything a dr. could prescribe?

Best is to take Vitamin C supplements. Drinking water also with a dash of lemon is also helpful. The best way to combat flu is to just sleep and plenty of liquids.

You can find more ideas for home remedies here
healthandwellnesscentral.com/…

Is she truly does have the flu, have her go to her MD and they will do a test, if it is within, I believe, 36 hours or so of getting the flu, they can prescribe Tamiflu that can help shorten the course of the flu.

I don't want to eat, even if I smell something I don't want to eat it. I drink water and don't really eat. I'm obsessed with losing weight.
It all really started when my mom said I looked big in some of my clothes, and to be careful I might gain weight. now I try to avoid mirrors and when I look in a mirror I feel like crying..or do cry.
I'm not sure if this is anorexia. what are the symptoms of anorexia?

Yupp, that's anorexia.

I'm afraid that I might be getting the stomach flu, my mom dosent feel good an alot of my school has been gone because of it. Some symptoms that I am feeling is terrible stomach ach, mussels feel somewhat week, when ever I eat it feels like I need to throw up, and I hate puking, I have gone poop 3 times today with a decent amout of poop, so far no diarrhea. are these beginning symptoms if not what are?

Yea, looks like it. Stomach flu sucks ***, I hate it, but it'll go away with time.

Or just coincidence?

My mom had both chemo and radiation treatments, and they did tell her about "chemo brain" (what the first answer referred to) and boy did she have it! Not at first, but after several treatments she would start to forget things all the time. Nothing major like who we were or anything but she was constantly forgetting things I told her and where she put things and stuff like that…

My mom tell me that I write the lowercase "N" backwards, and she thinks it might be a sign of Dyslexia. so is handwriting your letters backwards a symptom of Dyslexia?

yes. for example some people read the word "dad" and go to write it and write "bab"

Yes it is. But don't worry there are teachers that can help you with it. I have dyslexia but I just live with it

I think I have some of the symptoms of an ovarian cyst, but I don't know what to tell my mom because I know she refuses to take me to an ob/gyn. is it possible to treat ovarian cyst symptoms without having to see a doctor? At what point might a doctor visit be necessary?

There is nothing you can do about it at home. If you firmly believe you have a medical problem tell your mother what you think is happening and why you think it. neither you nor her are qualified to diagnose a medical condition, let alone treat it.

If she refuses to take you to the doctor have a talk with your school health nurse or a member of the school faculty about the situation. they will help you get the medical help you may need.