Child with rare disease receives Spain's first pediatric heart, liver and kidney transplant
Operated on at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron, 10-year-old is disease's longest survivor and sole triple transplant recipient
Iria, a 10-year-old girl with a rare genetic mutation, is the first child in Spain to have received a heart liver and kidney transplant having been operated on at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron hospital.
With very few people worldwide diagnosed with a NEK8 gene mutation, which causes fibrosis and scarring of the organs leading to their failure, Iria is the disease's longest survivor.
Furthermore, not only is she the disease's longest survivor and the only child in Spain to have received a triple transplant, she is also the only person with the mutation to have received one.
The girl had a heart transplant when she was 5 months old and a liver and kidney transplant last October. All of the transplanted organs are disease-free and Iria is already getting ready to go back to school with her peers.