‘Baby Tony:’ beat the odds

April 24, 2008 03:08 pm

— Lockport boy who needed a liver transplant is graduating from high school this year

“Baby Tony” isn’t a baby any more.
Eighteen years after his name was a constant presence in the Union-Sun & Journal, Anthony Prica Jr. is on the verge of adulthood.
It’s a sometimes-scary proposition for his parents, Kelly and Tony Sr., because if there’s one thing they’ll always worry about, it’s whether their baby remembered to take his anti-rejection meds.
“I joke with Tony, ‘You’ll be married and I’ll still call you every day: Did you take your pills today?’” Kelly said.
Tony was born without liver ducts or a gall bladder. His condition, biliary atresia, was diagnosed when he was only three weeks old, thanks to the persistence of his pediatrician, Dr. William Baier, and the only cure was a liver transplant.
In 1990, the procedure was exceedingly rare and risky. It also was exceedingly expensive, and that’s how “Baby Tony” became a local notable.
When Tony Sr.’s health insurer wouldn’t cover the cost of organ procurement, the Lockport community rose to the challenge. Civic and fraternal groups hosted a series of fund-raisers — spaghetti dinners, fun nights, events at the Palace Theater — and the US&J documented the push.
“We will always remember all the support we had, always appreciate the things people in this community did for us,” Tony Sr. said. “People we didn’t even know gave,” Kelly added. “We were blessed.”
Tony Jr. received a new liver in August 1990, when he was 8 months old, at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The identity of his donor, a 3-year-old girl, remains unknown to the Pricas today.
Much of the story of his early fight for survival remains unknown to Tony Jr., too. He’s never asked for many details and his parents haven’t pushed them on him. The question, “did you take your pills today?” strikes him as sort of nagging, he said, but he knows better than to challenge Mom on the point.
“I don’t have any memory (of the transplant and aftermath). It’s something that happened, but it feels like it didn’t happen to me,” Tony said. “My parents said the doctors said I’d never walk, and I walk just fine.”
Tony hasn’t experienced any lasting effects from the transplant other than needing daily medication. He takes two anti-organ rejection medicines daily and an antibiotic three times a week to ward off infection in his liver ducts. Several years ago Tony’s medical team, still based in Pittsburgh, tried weaning him off the meds but it didn’t work out. The good news is he was able to cut back to three medications from 12.
“Knock on wood, we went two summers ago for a biopsy and they didn’t find anything,” Kelly said.
Unbeknownst to the Pricas when they struggled with his liver condition, Tony also was born with mild cerebral palsy. It became apparent later in his infancy as he experienced developmental setbacks.
The rail-thin 18-year-old doesn’t dwell on that condition either. He dreams of being invited to play hockey or another team sport, but knows his peers aren’t thrilled to play with the slight kid, so he gets his thrills from XBox instead.
A senior at Lockport High School, Tony has struggled somewhat academically, but when it comes to computers he’s a natural. The grades he’s earned in his BOCES-run graphic communication classes are among his best ever, he says proudly, and a recent assignment to design a poster for the upcoming Molson Canal Concert Series got him thinking more about his future.
Tony intends to put off college, for a while at least, after he graduates in June. He’d rather go directly into the job market and get his graphics career started.
As their baby becomes a man, the Pricas still wrestle with the what-ifs of Tony’s chronic illness.
“Every time he sneezes we think about it,” Kelly said. “I don’t know that we ever get past it. We just live day-to-day.”
“It was a learning experience,” Tony Sr. added. “We’d do it again if we had to.”

Photos

Now — Tony Prica Jr. stands with his parents, Tony and Kelly, at their Allen Street home, last month. “Baby Tony” was a constant presence on the pages of the Union-Sun & Journal in 1990, when he was an infant awaiting a then-revolutionary liver transplant. The outlook before Tony’s surgery wasn’t good, his mom remembers; if he lived, doctors predicted, he probably would not walk. Flash forward to 2008 and Tony’s looking forward to walking across the Artpark stage this June to take his Lockport High School diploma in hand.

Tony plays his favorite computer game, Guitar Hero, at home. After he graduates from Lockport High School in June, he plans to find a job in graphic arts. School sometimes is a struggle for Tony, who has mild cerebral palsy, but his grades in computer and graphic communication classes are outstanding.

then — Anthony Prica Jr. received a life-saving liver transplant in 1990, when he was 8 months old.