Joshua Leveridge only wanted one thing for Christmas this year: the gift of a miracle second life
"I was really excited and got quite anxious at the same time — you know in the back of your head there's always the possibilities of, 'What if it doesn't go right?'" Ms Leveridge said.
She said it was a bittersweet feeling knowing her husband had a second chance but another family had lost a loved one in return. "It's strange that someone has to die for my husband to live, but it's such a good thing … giving someone else life," she said.The pair's 10-year-old son, Reuben, had a restless night when his father was told the good news.
"I just dropped into my Dad's hands when I heard … it was very frightening — I only got a four-hour sleep that night thinking about what's going on," Reuben said."Now we can do a lot together, play soccer, footy, all the things I like, he likes, Mum likes … it's going to be real fun," he said.The surgery took around 10 hours and involved 15 people, made up of three medical teams, including liver specialists from the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.
The director of the Queensland Lung Transplant Service at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, Dr Peter Hopkins, said Mr Leveridge was only the eighth patient in Australia to undergo the surgery."The biggest challenge was actually keeping him well enough to survive the operation … really keeping him motivated and physically strong enough to get through."
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