Madelyn

Miss Mighty Madelyn has received 2 gifts of life from her hero, organ donor. She had a liver transplant when she was 13 months and again when she was 4. She has been through a lot: diagnosed with biliary atresia at 7 weeks old, first major surgery at 7 weeks old called the Kasai procedure to hopefully save her liver. That was unsuccessful and she was listed as active on the transplant wait list. While she waited, she had low blood sugar so serious that she needed a feeding tube running 24 hours to keep her level in range. Her feeding tube came out and her level dropped low very fast. Her home health nurse came over quickly and placed a new tube and got her blood sugar stable. She received her second chance at life through organ donation when she was only 13 months old. It was an incompatable split liver so the doctors drained her blood and replaced it with the donor livers blood type. Since it was a split liver there came a lot of complications. She had portal vein thrombosis needing a stent placed and blood thinners to keep it open, biliary strictures and needed biliary bags for 2 years with Cholangiograms every 3-4 weeks, tonsils and adenoids removed and confirmed PTLD (cancer), hearing loss, lots of hospital stays, mri’s, scans, blood draws, iv’s, etc. she also had a very serious GI bleed and after countless testing they could not find the source so we lived in the hospital for two months and she received more blood transfusion then I can count. She was then re listed as active on the transplant list and received her perfect liver match at 4 years old. She is doing great now and is loving life. She is in dance, figure skating, soccer, gymnastics, swimming! I tear up every time I see her just being able to be a kid. She spent so many scary days at the hospital and we were told she might not make it. She did! She is here, loving life, enjoying life, and always smiling! To see her full story, please visit her fb page: Facebook.com/biliaryatresiamadelyn

Madelyn

5 yo · Coon Rapids

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