Christmas comes early for little Joey and the Conway family!
Christmas came early for a little Tullamore boy last week on his very last post-operative visit to the Chicago hospital where he received life-saving surgery in April of last year.
Joey Conway's delighted parents, Tommy and Natalie, described the news delivered to them by their son's surgeon, Dr. Riccardo A. Superina, that this would be their last post-op visit to the clinic as “the BEST news” and added that Joey is now “thriving and living life to the full” after his complex surgery.
Little Joey Conway's surgery was made possible as a result of a massive GoFundMe campaign 'Help Our Little Man Get Life-Saving Surgery' which raised over €330,000 in a three-week period last year and was of the Top Five most successful GoFundMe fundraisers of 2024.
In a heartfelt update on the 'Join Together for Joey' Facebook page, his delighted parents posted a picture of Joey's visit to Dr. Superina and spoke of how grateful they are to everyone who helped to make his surgery possible.
A day which was already laced with emotion was made all then more special for the Conway family when Joey's surgeon delivered the good news that this would be their son's last post-op visit to Chicago while wearing an Offaly jersey!
“We gave Joey's surgeon Dr.Superina an Offaly jersey after he admired it on Joey a few months back at one of our post op visits in Chicago. On Thursday he surprised us by wearing it and also by giving us the BEST news, that this is our last post op visit in Chicago. The best news for Joey and our family” said his grateful Dad.
By the time he travelled to Chicago for his surgery in April 2024 at just two years of age, little Joey Conway, who has one sister, Molly, and a brother, Jordi, had already battled a series of health challenges, culminating with a diagnosis of non-cirrhotic portal hypertension, a rare disease that affects the blood vessels leading to the liver.
He underwent complex meso-rex shunt bypass surgery in Chicago in a five-hour operation to connect the superior mesenteric vein to the left portal vein using an internal jugular vein. This procedure bypasses the obstruction and restores normal portal flow into the liver
Without the crucial surgical procedure in Chicago, the little Tullamore boy would have had to undergo surgery three or four times a year in Ireland to band large veins in his oesophagus to stop them from bleeding.