This is a story about my daughter's life. Brittany was born in January 1995 with jaundice. She was a very happy baby, but she always seemed to be hungry. We went to the doctor every 2 weeks because of her poor weight gain. Although she ate a lot she had a big belly and very, very tiny legs and arms. By the end of March, we had blood tests ran. Two weeks later, we were told that her bilirubin was extremely high and we were referred to the children's hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. It took about a day to find out what was wrong. It was biliary atresia and she had a Kasai done on April 7.

Her operation went great. Afterwards, she was in and out of hospitals numerous times. When she was six months old she was put on the transplant list, even though she didn't really need one yet. 

Her Kasai worked until she was 4 years old. In January, 1999, our doctors told us she needed a new liver soon. We considered a living-related transplant. Her dad went through a number of tests was the perfect match. In March 1999, Brittany had her transplant. It worked for about a week and then started to fail. She was immediately put back on the waiting list. Finally she got another liver. We were in the hospital for about 2 months. She went to rehab to learn to walk, talk, sit-up, and eat again. She has been doing great ever since.

We thank God every day that we have Brittany, because she could have been taken away from us. We also thank our donor and donor family.  Brittany wouldn't have been saved without their decision to donate. I know it must be hard when your child just passed away and you are asked if you would donate their organs. We thank them every day for saying yes.

I could write so much more to this story, but my point is I never thought of organ donation until it was our child. People need to think of it that way. What if that was your child lying in the hospital bed and there was nothing you could do except hope and pray someone said yes in time? Please reach out your heart and be a donor.