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A 9-year-old boy who spent a heartbreaking 480 days in the hospital during the swine flu pandemic is now a big step closer to recovery after getting a kidney from his mother.
Robert “Boo” Maddox V of Boyce, La., received the lifesaving surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., July 29.
“Let’s get this done,” the young survivor reportedly said as nurses prepped him for the surgery.
Boo’s kidneys were damaged as he battled the H1N1 flu virus during his nearly 500-day hospitalization from November 2009 to March 2011.
Courtesy of Mayo Clinic
Boo’s kidney comes from his mother, Renee, who stepped up as a donor without hesitation, her husband Robert Maddox iV said.
After entering New Orleans Children’s Hospital in critical condition, he endured a marathon stay and a series of near-fatal infections as the flu virus wreaked havoc across his entire body.
For a time, machines kept his heart and lungs going. Doctors at one point said Boo would probably never breathe on his own, or eat through his mouth again.
Though he went home more than two years ago, ventilator-free, Boo’s father Robert Maddox IV estimates his son has had only eight months’ worth of hospital-free days since then, due to more complications and his need for kidney dialysis.
Maddox, 44, and Boo’s mother Renee Maddox, 42, drove eight hours round-trip, three days a week, to take Boo to dialysis in New Orleans, Robert Maddox told the Daily News.
Courtesy of Mayo Clinic
Dr. Mikel Prieto, surgical director of the kidney transplant program at Mayo Clinic, performed Boo’s surgery July 29.
Doctors had given Boo a fistula, connecting an artery and vein in his arm, to make dialysis more efficient. But the procedure left him with pulmonary hypertension, and doctor after doctor told the family he would never be eligible for a transplant. He also had problems with his pancreas, and struggled to eat solid food.
Dr. Mikel Prieto, surgical director of the kidney and pancreas transplant program at Mayo Clinic, was determined to find a way to help Boo.
“Because of everything else going on [with his condition], the transplant seemed like a crazy idea,” Prieto told the Daily News. “Then we started to figure out a plan.”
When Prieto first met Boo in April, “at the time he looked very sick,” Prieto said. “He was having severe abdominal pain and breathing problems, all kinds of things. He looked like he was a long way from being a candidate, but I looked at the record and realized a lot of his problems had started after he had the fistula in his arm.”
Courtesy of Mayo Clinic
Boo with Dr. Mikel Prieto, mother Renee Maddox, and father Robert Maddox, before his surgery last week.
Dr. Prieto and his team are “a godsend,” Robert Maddox said.
“He walked in the room and said within 10 minutes, ‘I think I know what’s wrong with him, and I can fix him, and I’m going to put a kidney in your boy,'” Maddox said. “This is after a long line of no’s.”
To replace the fistula, doctors connected a catheter to the vena cava, the large vein that connects the upper and lower halves of the body, for Boo to receive dialysis. The vein was clotted from Boo’s other medical procedures, so doctors first had to open it using a wire.
The procedure was a success. “Suddenly he was like a new kid, and we were ready for a transplant,” Prieto said.
ITN/ABC News
In 2011, when he was 7 years old, Boo was released from Children’s Hospital New Orleans after a nearly 500-day stay as he battled the H1N1 flu virus.
Though both parents were screened as possible kidney donors, doctors ultimately chose Renee. “She is way stronger than me,” Maddox chuckled.
After undergoing their respective surgeries last week, the pair are doing well, and Boo’s new kidney is working as expected, Prieto said. He may even leave the hospital within a week.
The family – including Boo’s four sisters – looks forward to the day Boo can return to school and be with other kids. He hasn’t been able to attend since kindergarten, though he learned to spell and write from his hospital bed and loves using his iPad, which has been “a great teacher for him,” his father said.
“His friends consist of nurses and doctors. He has grown up very, very fast because that’s who he’s hung out with,” Maddox said.
ITN/ABC News
Boo’s long bout with swine flu is extremely rare, doctors said at the time.
But in other ways, Boo is just like any other boy his age. He loves playing with Legos and watching “Duck Dynasty,” which was filmed near his hometown. One of the hospital residents recently gifted him with a duck call signed by one of the show’s stars – which he gleefully uses to call the nurses to his bedside.
And Boo can’t wait to ditch the feeding tube he’s had for months and chow down on real food – especially pizza.
Boo’s family “deserves a huge amount of credit” for all they have endured, Prieto said.
“It’s amazing how resilient he is, how tough he is. He has had something like 50 or 70 surgeries. He’s just very brave. He never complains. He’s always ready to go.”
If he’s learned one thing from Boo, it’s that “it ain’t over til God says it’s over,” Maddox said.
“This has been a really long journey, but it has been a life-changing journey,” he said. “It was a terrible thing, but also a very wonderful thing because it brought our family closer together and closer to God.”
tmiller@nydailynews.com
