Baby Died Of Cancer, Heartbroken Mom Supports New Organ Donation System

Her baby died of cancer despite desperate efforts to save his life, including a transplant. Years later, his heartbroken mom is now supporting a new organ donation system.

Baby Logan Donegan didn’t live very long, but his devastated mother is trying to help others in need of organ transplant by supporting a new system in Wales. Baby Logan was born with his bowels on the outside of his body, and despite a successful surgery to correct the problem, died of post-transplant lymphoma disease.

The baby’s mom, Rhian Bailey, supports plans for a new organ donation system, following her heartbreaking ordeal. Logan was born with the rare condition, which affects about three in every 10,000 infants. For unexplained reasons, this birth defect is present in Wales more than in any other country in the world, according to Wales Online.

In general, the rare defect can be successfully corrected with several surgeries. However, in baby Logan’s case, it was more complicated. He spent nine-months in the hospital and, after multiple operations, doctors decided an organ transplant was his only option for survival.

After her baby died of cancer, Rhian has opened up about her heartbreaking experience with little Logan. She was just 18-years-old and five months pregnant when a routine ultrasound revealed her baby’s condition.

“His name had been put on the list for a transplant, so we just had to wait until a suitable match came up.

During this period he couldn’t eat or go to the toilet naturally, and he had to be supported by machines and medicines.”

Ten months later, in the summer of 2009, I got the call to say a possible organ had been found.

They asked me if Logan was well enough to have the operation, and thankfully he was. It was an agonizing wait, but four hours later an ambulance was sent to collect him to take him to Birmingham Children’s Hospital for his bowel transplant.”

The mother had mixed emotions, and questioned her decision to move forward with the surgery prior to the organ transplant, and realized another child had to die for her baby to have an organ. Doctors gave Logan a 50/50 chance of making it.

Logan’s surgery was a success, and even though doctors predicted he needed a six-month hospital stay, he was out in six-weeks, defying all odds. The baby was recovering and even putting weight on when, in December, 2009, the family received devastating news that he now suffered from post-transplant lymphoma disease.

Logan underwent three rounds of chemotherapy, but an MRI scan in January, 2010, showed there was nothing else doctors could do for him. Rhian was devastated, and said her baby died of cancer two weeks later, in February, 2010.

Five years later, Rhian has been blessed with a healthy baby daughter, but admits she was terrified throughout the pregnancy. She decided to share the story of how her baby died of cancer to bring awareness about the new “opt-out” organ donation system in which people in Wales will be presumed to have agreed for their organs to be donated after death.

Rhian says she hopes that bringing awareness to this issue will help others in similar situations, but misses her baby every day.

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