BONE marrow transplant boy Rhys Daniels was yesterday continuing to
recover from his pioneering operation.
Two days after undergoing surgery the youngster was well enough to
request his favourite snack for breakfast -- baked beans.
The two-year-old from Epping, Essex, is in an isolation cubicle at the
Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Bristol, where doctors say he must
remain for about four weeks.
His father, Mr Barry Daniels, said on Saturday he was in ''cracking
good condition'' after the previous day's operation.
''It's nice to see that he has pulled through so well. That's what a
brave little boy he is -- going through that treatment and coming out
with flying colours.''
A hospital spokesman said last night Rhys's condition continued to be
satisfactory.
His family faces an anxious wait of up to a year before doctors know
whether the transplant has been successful.
He suffers from Batten's disease, a rare inherited disorder which
invariably kills children by about the age of seven.
Rhys was at the centre of a High Court action last month when two
London health authorities were criticised for closing down a transplant
unit at Westminster Hospital just before he was due for treatment.
The Bristol hospital stepped in with the offer of a transplant, the
first in the world in which a Batten's disease sufferer has received
bone marrow from an unrelated donor.
Specialists hope Rhys's transfusion of bone marrow will help halt the
progress of the wasting disease which affects the brain.
His sister Charly, five, has the same condition but cannot be helped
by a transplant because her symptoms are too advanced.
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