Surgery helps toddler eat first meal

A Dublin toddler who could not eat or drink has taken her first taste of food after US doctors carried out a pioneering procedure to grow her a new oesophagus.

Mother Esti Madden said it is a miracle her 18-month-old daughter Elie has been able to breathe on her own for the past week, also enjoying her very first meal of a few spoonfuls of vanilla pudding.

Elie, who was born with an oesophagus too short to connect to her stomach, was placed in a five-week coma at the end of last year to allow doctors carry out a procedure called the Foker process.

Elie, who has a twin sister called Emie, could not eat or swallow and her airways constantly had to be cleared with the aid of two suction machines before she was flown to the US at the end of November.

Her mother said medics are amazed at the recovery of the girl, who has gone through seven surgeries over the past four months at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“It’s a miracle and we are so blessed,” Ms Madden said from Boston. “She is breathing on her own without a mask for the past week.

“I can pick her up and go, which wasn’t possible all her life. It was hard but the outcome is truly amazing.

“She has just taken her first taste of food. The therapists are astonished as children who usually go through this have mouth aversion, but it was like vanilla pudding was the best thing she ever had.”

Ms Madden said it was amazing to see her daughter lick her lips after taking the vanilla pudding, as she had always been fed through a tube in her stomach. “It’s very encouraging that she wants it. She loved it.”

Up until recent days, her parents could only tell Elie was distressed by the tears falling down her face, as she was unable to make a sound. But her mother has told how she can now hear her little girl’s voice for the first time.

“She is crying. You can hear her when she cries and she is unhappy. You can hear her making unhappy noises but she is not smiling and laughing yet.

“I don’t think she feels too great yet still. She is not the happy Elie as she was but it’s great to hear her and great to look at her without the tubes and swallowing.

“It’s milestones for us now every week. They are normal things for every other child.

“It’s like a miracle. I don’t think she is in any pain. She is in a little bit of discomfort because she is being weaned slowly off narcotics. It is still tiring for her. Her scars are fading slowly and her whole body is slowly recovering.”

With Elie’s last surgery completed, Ms Madden says the family is preparing to go home t in the next two weeks.

* For more information go to eliemadden.com.