Kirkintilloch mum urges families to sign up for organ donation as two-year-old son waits for transplant match

The biggest goal that two-year-old Zachary Bradford has in life is to make it to his third birthday in October.

That’s how severely ill the youngster is after he was born prematurely at only 28 weeks due to his bowel perforating in his mother’s womb.

Zachary, from Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, had a liver transplant when he was 22 months old, but after contracting sepsis the new liver has failed.

The youngster has now been re-listed for a multi-visceral transplant, which covers small bowel, liver and stomach. However, because of his tiny size, his donor organs also need to come from a small child.

“Zachary is only 9kg, he is one of the many children in need of a child donor”, his mum Jade Earaker told STV News.

“With each day passing, Zachary is only getting sicker. We have been told this past week he may only have weeks left to live if he does not receive these life saving organs.”

Mother Jade has said she feels helpless for her child. Jade Earaker via Supplied

‘I feel helpless’

Jade is doing everything she can to maximise her son’s chances of a donor for his second transplant.

She has tried desperately to improve his odds of an organ match, including making a number of powerful videos on TikTok to raise awareness of child organ donation.

However, the reality of the situation is that he is one of 260 children in the UK waiting for a transplant.

According to NHS Blood and Transplant, there are 40-50 paediatric organ donors each year, and around 200 children receive organ transplants, which means five waiting for more than one organ.

“As Zachary’s mum, I feel helpless and completely broken that we have no other alternative. All I can do is raise awareness”, said Jade.

“I would just like to start the conversation about organ donation for people. We never thought we would ever be in this scenario and that just shows that this can happen to anyone at some point in their life.”

Zachary was diagnosed with an abdominal wall defect during Jade’s ten-week pregnancy scan.

He went on to form a bowel outside of his body, which ended up perforating at 28 weeks and led to an emergency C-section.

Zachary had to be fed through a central line and he was then diagnosed with intestinal failure and liver failure, which put him on the transplant list.

Zachary was taken into surgery as soon as he was born. Jade Earaker via Supplied

After over one year on the donor list, and six unsuccessful matches, he had become too ill to wait for the correct size of match donor required for the bowel transplant.

In order to survive acute liver failure, Zachary was forced to take a liver from an adult donor on August 24.

The operation was a success but Zachary contracted sepsis at a critical moment in recovery, which has severely damaged his new liver.

‘Save our baby’

Zachary’s only hope at making it to his third birthday is if the parents of another child agree to organ donation – and that means an infant will die before he can get better.

“Unfortunately, with the cruel nature of bowel transplants, the option of an adult donor is unavailable and Zachary will need a paediatric donor”, Jade confirmed.

“It’s really important that families know where each other stands on organ donation if, god forbid, you’re ever in the position to be asked to donate.

“As a parent of one of the 260 plus kids in the UK currently awaiting transplant, we hope by sharing Zachary’s story, that you or someone you know could save our baby.”

Zachary may only have weeks to live. Jade Earaker via Supplied

Jenni Minto, the Scottish government’s public health minister, has backed the plea, saying the case of Zachary proves the need to increase the numbers of organ donors across Scotland.

She said: “Cases like this one show how important it is for us to increase the numbers of organ donors across Scotland and the wider UK to allow more people – both children and adults – to have the transplants they desperately need.

“Later this month as Organ and Tissue Donation Week gets under way, people across Scotland will be encouraged to make their donation decision known and share it with family and friends.

“This conversation plays a vital part in making it easier for loved ones to support organ donation decisions should the worst happen. While this is particularly important for adults, we also encourage children to start learning about organ donation.”