Join our campaign by making a one-time or recurring gift.

We invite you to share personal memories and reflections about your experience at the hospital.

Treyton receives the most precious gift of all

A healthy Treyton Miller is all smiles today, thanks to a liver donated by his father and the expertise of the liver transplant team at Children’s Memorial.

The holiday season is a time of celebration and joy. It’s also a time of giving to help others. Three-year-old Treyton Miller, who was born with a potentially life-threatening liver disease, has been the beneficiary of some very special gifts in his young life. Thanks to his father, who donated part of his liver to him, and to the expertise of the doctors and nurses at Children’s Memorial Hospital’s Siragusa Transplantation Center, Treyton has received the most precious gift: the gift of a healthy life.

Shortly after he was born, Treyton showed signs of jaundice. Tests indicated that his level of bilirubin, a chemical that is cleared by the liver, was alarmingly high. Treyton was taken to another hospital near the family’s central Illinois home, where he received blood transfusions, had further tests and underwent a liver biopsy. Finally, his parents, Shannon Flies and Tom Miller, received a diagnosis for their child: Treyton had biliary atresia. This chronic, progressive disorder causes liver damage and affects a number of processes that are necessary for normal body function. It is also a disease that can be fatal without proper treatment.

Treyton underwent a procedure called the Kasai operation, which allowed bile to drain from his liver to his intestinal tract. Although his doctors said it offered a good short-term solution, they told Shannon and Tom that eventually their son would need a liver transplant. “While we knew that it was inevitable, the thought of what it would actually mean for Treyton was frightening,” says Shannon.

When Treyton was several months old, the Kasai procedure began to fail, and Shannon and Tom began to investigate pediatric hospitals with liver transplant programs. They were impressed by what they learned about Children’s Memorial’s liver transplant program. The program is co-directed by Peter Whitington, MD, the Sally Burnett Searle Professor of Pediatrics and Transplantation, and Riccardo Superina, MD, the Robert E. Schneider Chair in Transplantation and head of the Division of Transplant Surgery.

Twenty years ago, most children with biliary atresia died before the age of 2. Today, infants receiving liver transplants at Children’s Memorial’s Siragusa Transplantation Center have a high success rate. Thanks in large part to philanthropic support, the center includes one of the largest pediatric liver transplant programs in the world. The first liver transplant at Children’s Memorial took place in 1964, and to date more than 260 such transplants have been performed at the hospital.

Although Treyton was immediately placed on the national organ donation registry, Shannon and Tom volunteered to be tested as potential donors. Test results showed Tom was the proper blood type match.

“It really changes your life when you have a newborn and realize he can be taken away from you,” says Tom. “With everything that Treyton was going through, the decision to donate my liver was an easy one to make,” says Tom.

Two weeks after 8-month-old Treyton was admitted to Children’s Memorial, Tom underwent surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago to remove part of his liver. Afterwards, a segment of the organ was rushed to Children’s Memorial, where, in an 8-hour procedure, Superina and the transplant team removed Treyton’s liver and successfully implanted the new one.

When Children’s Memorial moves to its new home, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in 2012, it will be located on the Northwestern University medical campus in downtown Chicago. Among the many advantages for patients and their families will be its close proximity to partner institutions Northwestern Memorial and its Prentice Women’s Hospital.

After 12 days in the hospital, Treyton was transferred to Kohl’s House, a home-away-from-home near the hospital for transplant patients and their families. Six weeks after he first came to Children’s Memorial, little Treyton returned home, where he was reunited with his big sister, Alexis.

Initially, Treyton traveled to Chicago for weekly follow-ups with Estella Alonso, MD, medical director of the hospital’s liver transplantation program. Over time the appointments have become less frequent, and today he sees either Alonso or liver transplant physician Udeme D. Ekong, MD, every six months.

Shannon reports that Treyton is thriving. “He’s a normal, healthy boy” she says. “His personality has emerged, and he’s very talkative and entertaining. He likes to tell me everything he learned in pre-school that day. I look at him now and see how far he has come, but I will never forget where he has been, either.

“When I search my heart for words to describe how I feel about Children's Memorial and what it has meant for my son and for our family, words like ‘blessed,’ ‘grateful’ and ‘amazed’ come to mind. Thanks to the hospital and to his daddy, Treyton has been given a second chance at life.”

Consider giving today to Heroes for Life: Campaign for Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, to ensure that children needing life-saving organ transplants will benefit from world-class care in the most advanced pediatric facility in the Chicago area.