Boy’s journey of overcoming short bowel syndrome

The road can be long and difficult for children born with short bowel syndrome. Rare and sometimes fatal, the best shot at good quality of life involves a transplant.

10-year-old Jah’seki Cathey knows it’s never too soon to get ready for his big-league dreams of playing both football and baseball.

While pro football and baseball may be a long way off, Jah’seki has already been on a long journey just to get where he is today.

“Jah’seki was born with mal-rotation of the mid vulbulous gut,” said Cynthia Cathey, his mom. “His small intestines died. He was going to have a very rough life.”

Less than one percent of infants are born with short bowel syndrome, which happens when either the large or small intestine doesn’t work. The condition can be fatal.

That’s why Jah’seki’s family was referred to Stanford Medicine Children’s Health’s intestinal rehabilitation program, one of just a handful in the country.

“The hope of every doctor like me is that we can help them using medications and using sort of other strategies to try to rehabilitate their intestines,” said Ke-you Zhang, a doctor at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.

When Jah’seki was eight, that’s when an intestinal transplant was first considered.

It meant removing what was left of his gut and replacing it with a new organ. While it was his best shot, it was a massive surgery. The first attempt was unsuccessful due to clotting. However, two weeks later, he got the miracle he was hoping for.

“By the time he left the hospital, he was off IV nutrition, he was eating, and he just is voracious now,” Zhang said.

While an intestinal transplant is a massive and complex surgery, Stanford Children’s Health has performed over 50 intestinal transplants in the last 10 years with a near-perfect success rate.