HE IS the baby who was not expected to reach adulthood but tomorrow Chris Platt celebrates his 19th birthday and heads off to university.
Chris was born with the very rare liver condition Crigler-Najjar type one which is believed to affect about one in four million babies.
An inherited condition, in Crigler-Najjar the liver fails to control levels of bilirubin, which is formed when red blood vessels die. Excessive levels of bilirubin cause brain damage and death.
In fact, the only way that Chris was kept alive as a youngster was by spending around 12 hours each night directly under bright blue lights.
Even this would not be enough as he grew older, so at the age of 14 he underwent a graft liver transplant.
It has been a long journey for the Sutton Coldfield teenager – but now he is looking forward to a new chapter in his life as a university student.
Chris’s parents Jan and Pete were given the devastating news when Chris was just a few weeks old. Initially doctors thought he had jaundice but a liver biopsy revealed the terrible truth that he had Crigler-Najjar, a condition identified in the 1950s.
Read More and see Chris as a young adult! http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2011/09/23/light-baby-from-sutton-coldfield-heads-off-to-university-97319-29471070/#ixzz1Yp2uJSxR
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