A TODDLER born with her bowels on the outside of her body has been offered a ray of hope by doctors.

It had been feared that Sienna Smith, of Firthmoor, in Darlington, would need an urgent double transplant to save her life – the risks of such an operation would leave her with a 50 per cent survival rate.

But, following an examination by consultants in Birmingham, the two-year-old will be given a chance to recover naturally.

She will be assessed over three months to see if her body can adapt to the gastroschisis, the condition she was born with.

Until now, Sienna has been fed through Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), an intravenous feeding system which provides all the nutrition she needs.

But that process, to which she is attached seven days a week, 12 hours a day, has had the side-effect of liver damage.

Sienna’s mother, Vicky Mc- Fadyen, said there was a long way to go, and that there was a very real prospect of her condition deteriorating, but said she remained hopeful.

“I’ve never felt so positive about her outcome,” she said.

“We’ve just got to hope for the best. Other children pull through, I have to feel positive.”

There are dangers of taking Sienna off the TPN however, because if she falls ill, or picks up an infection, it could put even more strain on her body.

But the alternative at this stage would be to put the youngster through a transplant operation that would put her life at imminent risk.

Since 1995, of the 12 two to three-year-olds who have undergone a liver and intestine transplant, six have died.

Gastroschisis is a birth defect in which the intestines, and sometimes other organs, develop outside the body.

In Siena’s case, the protruding intestines had to be removed after birth, which has lead to complications in her digestion, and subsequent liver damage.

For more information about the condition, visit gastro schisis.co.uk ■ Tomorrow, Sienna will lend her support to an NHS campaign to get more Darlington residents signed up to the organ donor register. The NHS blood and transplant team will be at Joseph Pease Place, in Darlington, from 9am to 5pm.

A study conducted for the NHS found that while 41 per cent of the town’s residents thought they were on the register, only 25 per cent are.