Canadian 9-year-old undergoes life-saving bowel transplant
CTV
A beloved nine-year-old, known as Bella Brave to those on TikTok, underwent a life-saving bowel transplant for a rare disease she has been fiercely battling since birth.
A beloved Canadian nine-year-old, known as Bella Brave to those on TikTok, underwent a life-saving bowel transplant after a three-year wait for a rare disease she has been fiercely battling since birth.
“We were so used to living in fear and not knowing if she would survive without this transplant,” Kyla Thomson said about her daughter in an interview outside the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Bella Thomson, known to 6.3 million TikTok followers as Bella Brave, was born with a genetic spontaneous mutation of three rare diseases – Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), Hirschsprung’s Disease and Dwarfism – that left her with no immune system and a dead bowel.
“I’m just still in awe of the way she looks at the world. She could be so angry and bitter … and she does the opposite, and it just blows me away,” Thomson said, her voice breaking as she described Bella’s bravery. “To be that proud of my daughter, it makes me cry.”
At just three days old, the Saskatchewan-born miracle child underwent her first surgery — a count that would amount to approximately 30 operations with her first two years of life spent in hospitals in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Since then, Bella has received a bone marrow transplant and suffered septic shock four times – two of which healthcare professionals told Thomson they couldn’t explain how she survived.
“Within Bella's first year of life in hospital, everything being so rare, so painful, so exhausting living in hospital. I was very angry watching my firstborn go through this and then not have anyone tell me how to fix it. No one could fix it,” Thomson said.
