PORT ANGELES – A hospital room is already a familiar place for 6-month-old Maxxon.
His parents, Mandi and Mike Ray, and friends of the family hope he will see one again soon.
In the meantime, a “Miracles for Max” bracelet is available to help the family with expenses.
Nearly 7 months old now, the infant was born with a perforated bowel.
Eventually, Max under went five different surgeries to close up his bowel.
Jaundice, or yellowing of his skin and eyes, that was apparent when he returned home from the first surgery was attributed to medications and considered a temporary condition.
When it didn’t go away, more tests were run and Max was diagnosed as having been born with biliary atresia.
This is a condition – cause unknown, seen only in newborns, which is neither hereditary nor preventable, according to the Children’s Liver Association for Support Services – in which the liver’s bile ducts have not developed normally.
The bile flow from the liver to the gallbladder is blocked.
The condition can lead to liver damage and, if untreated, cirrhosis of the liver.
Max’s condition was not diagnosed early enough for other treatments, Mandi said, so the only option now is a transplant.
Max, his parents’ only child, needs a new liver.
He is on an organ transplant waiting list.
Mandi and Mark want to be well-prepared for the phone call that may come, telling them that a liver is waiting for their son.
Children’s Hospital in Seattle, which has the only pediatric liver transplant program in the Pacific Northwest, has the Rays’ home phone, cell phone and pager numbers.
“We have to have our bags packed and ready to go just in case they call us,” Mandi said.
“They have one hour to get hold of us and we have six hours to get to Children’s.”
