End of nightmare in sight for family

Matisse Reid. Photo / Supplied

The end of a "long nightmare" is in sight for the family of a chronically ill Hawkes Bay girl given a life-saving multiple organ transplant.

Nine-year-old Matisse Reid has spent her life in pain and being fed through a tube due to rare disorder Intestinal Pseudo Obstruction.

She has a chance to eat for the first time after a 12-hour surgery to replace her large and small bowels yesterday.

Her mother Jodee Reid says that hope is still hard to comprehend.
"I actually can't even bring myself to imagine it.

"We look at her now and all of us see that little baby who had three surgeries in her first six weeks of life. The little baby who never got better.

"It's all new. It feels like we've left behind a long nightmare. But we have a long way to go."

It will take a lot to adjust to Matisse being able to eat and having independence, she says.

"I was prepared to look after her medically for the rest of my life. I just want her around. It's a different concept to think maybe she'll be more independent.

"This is the other side of the journey."

The surgery is good news for Matisse after she was left devastated by Hell's Kitchen star Gordon Ramsay last month.

The celebrity chef was set to cook two dinners in Auckland and Wellington to raise money for her treatment but pulled out at the last minute.

Lawyers said the cancellation was due to circumstances beyond the star's control.

The setback came on the back of the family suffering eight "false-alarm calls" in their wait for Marisse's organ transplants.

Jodee says she will be eternally grateful to the family that ended Matisse's long wait by agreeing to donate the organs of their dead child.

"There are just no words. No words to say how grateful we are. The beginning of our journey is the end of theirs."

There are still many medical hurdles to overcome, Mrs Reid says.

Matisse will be on drugs for the rest of her life to make sure her body does not reject the new organs, she says.

For now, the family are preparing to spend Christmas in a hospital ward.

"We're expecting to be here for Christmas unless a miracle happens," she says.

"It's still early days."