A child prodigy born without kidneys has defied all odds.
Emmie Hope Mahoney was born without the vital organ in March 2021 and her mother, Andi Mahoney, was told her daughter would never survive.
But after donating one of her own kidneys shortly after birth, Ms Mahoney now has a thriving and healthy two-year-old girl.
Ms. Mahoney, of Jacksonville, Florida, had a normal pregnancy until her 20-week scan in November 2020 showed her baby had bilateral renal agenesis, a condition in which the kidneys never develop.
The condition occurs in one in about 4,500 live births in the United States. More than 40 percent of babies with the condition are stillborn, and if they are born alive, most will only live a few hours.
Emmie Hope Mahoney was born in March 2021 without vital organs and her mother, Andi Mahoney, was told her daughter would never survive
When the time came for the birth, doctors were ready to give baby Emmie oxygen. She needed immediate surgery
But Ms. Mahoney was determined her daughter would make it.
Shortly after her scan, Ms Mahoney looked for a specialist and found Dr. Rueben Quintero of the Fetal Institute in Miami, who made the six-hour drive from Jacksonville to Miami.
He said, “Only about 0.013 percent of cases in America.” [are diagnosed each year]. The reason it is impossible to survive the disease is because the baby has no fluids. Because they don’t have a kidney to pee on, they don’t swallow liquids like they should.”
Doctors don’t know what causes the condition, but a quarter of cases have a genetic component.
Bilateral renal agenesis, also called Potter’s syndrome, also prevents the baby’s lungs from developing, so Ms Mahoney had to receive fluid infusions for the baby for ten weeks while she was still pregnant.
Ms Mahoney told USA Today: “I kept going back to Miami to get more and keep Emmie alive. “My baby needed fluids to breathe. When I reached the 34 week mark, I had one [membrane] Fracture.’
When the membranes rupture, the amniotic sac bursts before labor begins. As soon as the amniotic sac ruptures, there is an increased risk of infection.
The expectant mother found a hospital in Stanford, California, that had previously dealt with the birth of babies with bilateral renal agenesis.
Ms Mahoney said: “I jumped on a flight from Jacksonville to California with a ruptured water.”
“I wanted to go somewhere where I could get my Emmie. “They also gave me hope that she would survive.”
When the time came for the birth, doctors were on standby to give baby Emmie oxygen and take her straight into surgery.
Ms Mahoney said: “I only met her after the operation. “I didn’t know if she would survive after the first day. “It was a lot of waiting and praying.”
Emmie’s lungs were underdeveloped and she desperately needed a kidney.
Although people are born with two kidneys, they can live perfectly healthy lives with just one.
The organs are needed to filter waste products from the body and regulate fluid balance.
Ms. Mahoney was able to donate a kidney to her daughter and on July 25, 2023, doctors performed the transplant.
She said: “I received the best news of my life when I found out we had the same blood types and that I had been approved for the operation.”
“I didn’t think twice about it. I knew I would give my kidney to Emmie.’
Emmie wasn’t able to leave the hospital until she was six months old, and even then she had to go back to the hospital in California to undergo dialysis – a treatment that helps the body remove excess fluid and waste products from the blood.
This allowed her to survive until she received the transplant from her mother.
Her family then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to be near Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which meant she could have outpatient dialysis at home for two years.
She remained on dialysis until she was deemed healthy enough to stop treatment at the age of two and a half.