One-year-old Matthew Hawkins was the youngest
person in New Jersey to receive a kidney transplant
when he received a kidney donated by his mother
at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in 1999. “I
feel like I gave birth to him twice,” says
his mother, Anita Hawkins of Livingston, N.J.
Matthew weighed only 18 pounds when he underwent transplant surgery.
He was chronically ill from birth and spent much of his first year
in the hospital. In the two years since his transplant, Matthew
has made steady progress. “Everyday I am in awe watching
him grow,” says Mrs. Hawkins. He started
preschool last November and like many three-year-old boys he has
a passion for trucks and is talking more everyday.
 “When
a child’s kidneys are not working, the whole body’s
physiology changes,” explains Lewis Reisman, M.D., Director
of Pediatric Nephrology and Transplantation for the Saint Barnabas
Health Care System. “The digestive system doesn’t
function normally, brain development and bone growth are impaired,
even taste sensation is affected. The kidney performs many functions,
but dialysis can only correct a few of them.” It requires
an interdisciplinary team of pediatric specialists to coordinate
the care of children with renal disease and for many of the tiniest
patients, transplant is the only good option.
Because most young kidney transplant recipients receive an organ
from an adult family member, there is the technical matter of fitting
an adult-size kidney in a small child. One of the biggest challenges
facing the health care team is promoting growth and development
until the child’s body is big enough to accommodate a full
size kidney.Tube feedings often provide the necessary nutrition,
and advances in dialysis technology offer more precise treatments
for children than were possible only a few years ago, says Dr.
Reisman. “Through frequent monitoring of cognitive development
we can intervene early with drug therapies, as well as speech,
physical and/or occupational therapy, to avert major developmental
delays,” he notes.
Once transplanted with a healthy kidney, these children face additional
hurdles. “Because children metabolize medications differently
than adults, we can’t expect the same results from immunosuppressive
drugs that have been tested merely on adults,” Dr. Reisman
points out. “Only within the last several years has the Food
and Drug Administration mandated that pharmaceutical companies
provide physicians with dosage recommendations for children.” Pediatric
Nephrology and Transplantation for the Saint Barnabas Health Care
System is one of only a few programs in the country participating
in clinical drug trials that are improving the odds for young transplant
recipients.
Dr. Reisman and the entire transplant team work closely with parents
and families throughout the transplant process. “It is not
just medical expertise and technology that create success stories
in pediatric renal transplantation,” stresses Dr. Reisman. “These
children survive because of the love, strength and dedication of
their families.”
– When he was 1
year old, Matthew Hawkins was the youngest child in the State
of New Jersey to receive a kidney transplant.
– Lewis Reisman, M.D., and
Isabel Roberti, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatric Nephrology
and Transplantation for the Saint Barnabas Health
Care System, were first in the state to offer such specialized
care for infants and children with renal failure.
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