Hayden had a liver transplant

3 people posing indoors at a celebration. A tattooed person in a white shirt stands on the left. In the centre, a child wearing a green crown with the number '1' holds a red stuffed toy in the shape of a liver. On the right, a person in a green dress holds the child. Balloons are visible in the background.

Every time I see Hayden, I see another child. They are still here, in my son. They changed our lives completely.

Brisbane mum Tanny had just brought her newborn Hayden home. Hours later, he went into cardiac arrest. After being rushed to hospital, it took doctors 18 minutes to bring him back to life and they had to revive him twice. He was only 3 days old.

Hayden was soon diagnosed with ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, a rare genetic disorder that causes ammonia to build up in the blood.

Fighting liver failure, doctors told Tanny that Hayden’s only chance at survival was a liver transplant.

‘He was a ticking bomb. But knowing he had a chance to survive brought us a lot of hope,’ said Tanny.

Hayden spent 4 daunting months on the transplant waitlist before his family received a life-saving call that a donor liver was available.

Baby Hayden is now one and a half years old and is a happy little boy full of life.

Tanny’s family have a tradition of placing a bauble on their Christmas tree in honour of Hayden’s donor and placing a present underneath for them.

‘Every time I see Hayden, I see another child. They are still here, in my son. They changed our lives completely,’ said Tanny. ‘We didn’t think he would make it to his first birthday and we got to celebrate it. They are carried in our hearts every day.’

‘Now, we celebrate every little step he takes. We call them ‘inch-stones’, not milestones. When he learned to clap, I cried tears of joy.’