Limitless
From TPN and tube-feeding to a bowel transplant, Garrett Taira has tried it all. We chat with the actor, dancer and chronic-illness advocate about self-esteem, support systems, and the dangers of door knobs.
WORDS // DANIELLA DOUGHAN
Garrett Taira’s medical history is, in a word, complex. Born in Maryland, USA, with chronic intestinal pseudo obstruction, he’s required daily IV nutrition, multiple hospitalisations and surgeries throughout this life.
On total parenteral nutrition (TPN) from when he was nine months old, Garrett received his first gastrostomy (G) tube at age seven. In 2010, at 18, he suffered agonising pain caused by perforations – holes – in his intestines.
After emergency Ileostomy surgery, Garrett woke to find his colon, large intestine and almost 2m of small intestine had been removed. What remained of his small intestine had been brought through his abdominal wall, allowing his body’s waste to travel through a stoma, into an ostomy bag.
In the midst of these extraordinary health challenges, in high school, Garrett found a passion for dance and has gone on to become a professional dancer, actor, comedian and speaker. He’s been featured on The Ellen Degeneres Show, choreographed an award-winning performance at Beyond the Stars Dance Competition and has his own TEDx talk.
In 2022, Garrett went under the knife again – this time for a life- saving double organ transplant, receiving a new bowel and kidney.
Bowel transplants are very rare, with only 90 or so performed worldwide each year. It’s also a high-risk transplant, with a minimum 12-month recovery period.
Two years on, when we caught up with Garrett he was generous with his time, fast with his laughter and positive with his responses.
This is his story.
What was it like growing up on TPN, with an IV line in your chest?
I think the whole reason I did so well was because my parents were so careful. My dad was a dentist and my mum was a speech and language therapist and also trained as a nurse. We were able to be very sterile – although I did get sepsis a lot.
I’d participate in sports and we’d change my TPN tubing after every activity. But sometimes, when you’re in the middle of fifth-grade gym class and your mum’s not there, you don’t know how to change it!
Growing up, the hardest thing to get used to was watching everyone else eat around me. Injecting food is not the same as chewing food!
As the oldest of four siblings, how were you included in family celebrations that centred on food? Sometimes I would just watch, other times I would eat and then vent my stomach immediately so I could just taste food. But I don’t recommend doing this, you just dehydrate yourself.
You always know – I’m sure a lot of kids can relate – that you’re different and you’re frustrated and you don’t know why it’s you and not the other kids. My parents would always make sure that I stayed grounded and grateful.
You started dancing and acting as a teen. What was it like having tubes while doing these physical things?
I was always self-conscious of my body. I had a lot of tubes and I was always wearing a swim shirt at pool parties. I think when I found dance it was really nice because I got a lot of validation from my peers. I had a really good group of friends and classmates who were very supportive.
There was a time at the beach when a friend told me I didn’t need to be so self-conscious and I took that on. My body has taken me through all my hardships. It’s like when people say, “be proud of your scars”. It’s just like that, but with tubes. Since then, I’ve stopped wearing a swim shirt.
When I danced it was easy for me to focus on the music and let my worries fade away. I felt a lot more present and I think that’s what drove my passion even further. By the time I started acting, my tubes weren’t a big deal for me in front of my peers, or going on dates, because I was very nonchalant about everything.
Sometimes though, my cords would get stuck on door knobs or chairs or something. For tubies, door knobs are our arch nemesis!
Photo credit: Pearly Kate Photography
In 2010, you woke up after emergency surgery with an ostomy bag and most of your digestive system removed. How did this shake things up?
My intestines never really worked because they were always extended. If I ate a teaspoon of something, I would have a stomachache for weeks. I’d be in so much pain that I would go to school hunched over. I was always so bloated, I looked really distended.
My surgery to get the ostomy really changed things. I felt a lot more comfortable when breathing, relaxing and moving. It really improved my quality of life, despite the management of an ostomy on top of TPN.
We tried tube-feeding before surgery with the G-tube and then after surgery with the G-tube, but it just wasn’t working for me. It was a step in the right direction, but we didn’t really get there until more than 10 years later.
Is that when you realised you needed a transplant?
Yes. TPN taxes the liver, so sepsis had started happening more often. And antibiotics tax the kidneys, so I was getting kidney disease. I was also getting a lot more sad and depressed about where my life was going to go and what was going to happen, because it was all such unknown territory.
In 2022, I went in for a routine check-up and the specialists mentioned I should consider getting a transplant. At the same time, I was really trying to turn my life around.
I was taking steps to get out of depression, I was renovating my basement, I was working out, I was trying to get some momentum going to hopefully catch a break.
I think a big reason why I wanted to do the transplant was because I didn’t want my parents taking care of me in their golden years. Without the transplant, in a few more years, I’d have been on dialysis and things would just have plummeted from there. And my parents have sacrificed so much for me already.
Making that decision must have been terrifying. What risks were you made aware of?
The doctors said I could still need the ostomy, that there was a chance of rejection, that I’d need a lot of blood transfusions and that the first year would be crazy, because [that’s when] they’re most worried about my body rejecting the new organ and the kidney being able to handle it.
It was my decision to do the surgery. Even when I asked the nurses, “what would you do?” they didn’t say anything because I’m sure they’ve seen it both ways. But I ended up getting a bowel and a kidney, and dude – when they say intestinal transplants are the hardest to recover from, it’s the truth.
What happened after the transplants?
I stopped TPN after about a week and a half. We slowed down and wanted to transfer to tube- feeding. I had a new ostomy with a new intestine. My doctor wanted me to try a little bit of food, so I started with Osmolite through the G-tube, then tried eating things like baby food packets that you squeeze, then more starches like toast, in very small amounts.
Can you eat whatever you want now?
I’m eating a very strict diet because I’ve been managing the transplant and getting used to what foods work and what foods don’t.
But when I cheat and stray from my diet, it blows my mind. Have you ever seen the movie with Bradley Cooper, Limitless? He takes a pill and can access 100 per cent of his mind. That’s what it feels like.
When you got your G-tube out in 2024, you published a beautiful social post – almost like an ode – saying goodbye to it. What was this adjustment like?
Oh man, I still feel like I have a G-tube! I still reach for it because I think it’s leaking sometimes. That G-tube was one of the best things that ever happened to me because it brought so much relief to my life – and it was the one thing that was low-maintenance.
So you don’t need to be too precious with it?
Yeah! You can spin it like a wheel and flick it and stuff, it’s super durable. It’s great. I’d tell anyone who was worried about getting one that you’re going to wish you had gotten it a lot sooner. It’s like you were driving a 1984 Corolla and now you’re in a Tesla!
What are you excited about, career-wise, right now?
I think I pursued acting and dancing because I had low self-esteem and was getting external validation from others. Because I was really self-conscious about how I looked, I always felt like I had to prove something. I have higher self-esteem now so I don’t need the external validation of dancing and filming to make me feel like I’m worthy.
What I love about dance and films is storytelling and recently, I’ve been able to do this within our community. I feel like my passion is helping more people who are also struggling while managing chronic illness, or feeding tubes, or just don’t know what the future looks like.
No one ever knows how long a transplant is going to last and since time is so valuable, I want to spend that time doing what I can to help others.