Meet Allyson

For most of her life, Allyson struggled with pancreatitis and excruciating pain In May 2025, she underwent a TPIAT at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

TPIAT or Total Pancreatectomy with Islet Autotransplantation is a surgical option for children with debilitating pain and impaired quality of life from acute recurrent or chronic pancreatitis.

Fast forward 7 months and hear what Allyson’s mom has to say about their journey and how our multidisciplinary approach made all the difference.

"We could not be more pleased with our experience at Nationwide Children’s, and specifically with the Pancreas and Liver Care Center. From our very first consultation, the team made us feel comfortable and treated us like family. Throughout our entire time at the hospital, everyone was informative and ensured we understood exactly what was happening and had everything we needed.

We love the multidisciplinary team approach that is used. We found this to be especially beneficial. This model ensures there are no gaps in care and that both the patient and family are supported every step of the way. Access to psychologists and social workers helped ease some of the everyday burdens that come with having a child undergo major surgery.

We are also incredibly grateful for the extensive training and support provided by the diabetes department, which allowed us to feel confident caring for Allyson after surgery. Allyson struggled for most of her life with pancreatitis, and her life post-TPIAT is vastly different from what it was before. Living without a pancreas and spleen comes with challenges, but not seeing our daughter in excruciating pain every day is something we rarely saw before surgery and something we now enjoy seeing daily.

Our family, and especially Allyson, will be forever grateful to Dr. Nathan and his team!"