Mum's horror after life-saving transplant is left on tarmac
A Queensland mother is desperately searching for answers after her sick young son’s critical bone marrow transplant was left on the tarmac in the United States.
Six-year-old Mateoh had been waiting three and a half years for the transplant. His mother, Shalyn Eggleton, says she’s “really frustrated” and is living “in hell” as she tries to get to the bottom of how such an immeasurable mistake could happen.
The family are yet to receive answers from officials on how long the transplant had been left at the airport and are now waiting for the marrow, which is a rare match to Mateoh, to be sent to Australia to assess whether it's still viable.
"The biggest thing to understand is, how could something like a big medical protocol and procedure be left behind at an airport when it should technically be supervised 24/7?" Shalyn told Today.
"We have received no reasons, nothing, pretty much.
"I will be doing all that digging myself because it's unacceptable.
"He's fought three and a half years...and for someone to be so neglectful and just naive when it comes to such a thing like this.
"Like, this is what he's been waiting for and someone's just left it behind.” She continued.
Mateoh suffers from chronic granulomatous disease, a genetic disorder that leaves his white blood cells unable to fight off certain types of infections.
The 6-year-old also suffers from an additional syndrome that causes his red blood cells to attack his body.
"Through the last 18 months, we trialled nine different things," Shalyn said.
"Like plasma, different haem therapy drugs, adult chemotherapy drugs, but nothing has worked.
"We were told at the end of last year I have to make the decision whether to do the transplant or not, knowing that it's our last option.
"And looking how well he is (there was) no way I could stop treatment.
"So my option was to go transplant, it did take a little bit to find a donor, our first donor actually rejected and declined...this donor has taken a while.
"This person in America has gone out of their way to go and be harvested, it's not affected me, it's someone else that has donated to Mateoh and now that's been left behind.
"It's a lot for us.”
Shalyn shared that Mateoh is undergoing chemotherapy to “keep him going” while they wait for the transplant.
"That's how we prolong it at the moment, chemo," she said.
"All the blood we've been giving him, he has a significant iron overload.
"That's what we need. We need the transplant to try and move on and try and fix him, because it's unfair on him."
Images: Today show