BOSTON -- Boston Bruins right winger Terry O'Reilly says his 4-month-old son has the same liver ailment which Jamie Fiske had and will probably die without a transplant, it was reported today.
O'Reilly told the Boston Herald his son, Evan, already has had two operations which did not correct the liver malfunction, and is still two weeks too young for a transplant.
'It looks like without a transplant he'll be gone,' O'Reilly, sometimes near tears, told the newspaper.
O'Reilly said he fears time will run out for his son because he would be placed near the bottom of waiting lists at major liver transplant centers in Minneapolis and Pittsburg.
Evan has biliary atresia, a malfunction in the liver's bile ducts which prevent the body from properly cleaning wastes. It is the same disease whch brought Jamie Fiske of Bridgewater, Mass., close to death in 1982. Her father Charles made an unprecedent plea for a donor in a speech to the American Academy of Pediatrics which led to her widely publicized liver transplant a year ago at the University of Minnesota.
'Evan's doctors told me that some children like Evan have lasted up to two and one-half years without a transplant,' O'Reilly told the newspaper. 'But there are no guarantees that he can make it until there's a donor available.'
O'Reilly said he and his wife, Lourdes, had kept silent about their plight because they hoped previous operations would correct Evan's problem, the newspaper reported.
But O'Reilly said doctors Tuesday told him the two operations, within two weeks of each other, apparently will not correct the problem.
'Evan has had two of those operations and there will be no more,' he said.
O'Reilly told the newspaper he was making his appeal for other children as well as his own son.
'It isn't just Evan. I never realized how many little kids have the same kinds of problems,' he said.
Jamie Fiske, now a healthy 2-year-old, received the liver of a brain-dead Utah baby whose parents donated the organ after hearing of Fiske's appeal.
'It's too bad that before a baby can get a transplant another baby has to die,' O'Reilly added, staring at the floor. 'But...'
The Herald said Evan could become the first liver transplant patient at New England Medical Center's Floating Hospital, where he is a patient. The newspaper said the hospital is one of four in Boston preparing to conduct transplants under a joint program, but still need state approval.
The hospital could seek an emergency waiver if Evan is ready for the operation and a donor is available before approval for the program is given.
O'Reilly said hockey has helped him cope with his ordeal and given him something to occupy his mind, although he can never forget about it.
'I'll be doing something, and suddenly I start thinking about numbers,' he said. 'The numbers are the percentages, the chances of Evan improving.'
