25 November 2021
Music for Matti to celebrate his kidney transplant journey
Matti Carrington was born at Frimley Park Hospital in June 2015, before transferred a few days later to University Hospital Southampton due to complications.
After numerous tests, and just 11 days after he was born, Matti was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition, which meant the kidneys did not form properly, leading to loss of function.
From the onset, the family were told that there was a high chance of tumours growing on the kidneys, or that they may fail within 6-18 months due to the additional strain on his body. Dad, Stefan, explains:
“We live in Farnham and had to bring Matti into hospital for regular clinic check-ups and also for an ultrasound every 12 weeks to continually monitor the kidneys for any changes.
They held up for much longer than anyone expected, but then at the end of January 2021, Matti’s health went downhill very quickly.
His kidneys failed, and thanks to the quick actions of the hospital staff on the G4N ward, they acted quickly to save his life.
Since 1 February, we’ve done peritoneal dialysis overnight around 300 times, using the inside lining of Matti’s abdomen (peritoneum) as the filter, rather than the more commonly heard of haemodialysis machine.
Like the kidneys, the peritoneum contains thousands of tiny blood vessels, making it a useful filtering device.
Thankfully this form of dialysis could be done at home, so it meant we didn’t have to make the hour trip to the hospital each day.
This allowed Matti to go to school, and live as normal a life as possible, despite his condition.
As soon as Matti’s kidneys failed, my wife Marjorie and I were tested to check if we were a match. Sadly my kidneys were not a good enough match size wise, but Marjorie proved to be a good match, and on 26 October, we all went to London for the kidney transplant.
It was very scary, but has been a real turning point for Matti, and once he is fully recovered, it will make a massive difference for him.
Before the operation, he could only have 600ml of liquid a day, and there were so many types of food that he couldn’t eat. It has been so tough for him, but one of the things he is most looking forward to is being able to drink a whole bottle of water.”
The family have raised an incredible £2,000 in support of Southampton Hospitals Charity, and the wards which cared for Matti within Southampton Children’s Hospital.
Stefan continues: “We have always played music as a family and our passion for this increased throughout the pandemic. During clap for carers in the first lockdown, we would play music outside our house during the two minutes.
We wanted to thank the fantastic hospital teams in Southampton, and this was the perfect way. I’m not good at running, so we’ve played music instead.
We created a few videos for our friends and family about Matti’s condition, and they really wanted to support our journey.