Jenna was born in December 1996. Biliary atresia was suspected within one week because of her severe jaundice. She had a Kasai at five weeks, but it was not successful. 

When she was five months old,  we flew from our home in Tarrytown, NY, to UCSF, in San Francisco, because we wanted Dr. Emond to see her. Once admitted, she developed ascites and was scheduled for a living-related transplant within a couple weeks. They wanted to beef-up her nutrition before the transplant. I began the screening to be her donor.

The day before the transplant Jenna spiked a fever and the transplant had to be postponed until the infection cleared up. She was hanging by a thread, needing the transplant, but besieged with infection. She became very lethargic and her eyes were dull. Needless to say, it was a very tenuous and stressful time.

The transplant, according to Dr. Emond, was particularly difficult. She lost six pints of blood because her ability to clot blood was severely compromised. He told us that perhaps one day he would tell us just how serious it was for Jenna, but not yet. I believe her operation lasted 8 hours and it was Dr. Emond's last transplant at UCSF before he left to start the program at Columbia, where we now go for Jenna's follow-up care.

One week after the transplant, surgeons opened her up as standard procedure for an open biopsy and in the process checked to see if all seemed okay. It is disturbing to know that they don't do open biopsies at all transplant centers but at least all went well.

One week after the open biopsy, they performed a needle biopsy that was a disaster. The needle went through her new liver and punctured a lymph node on the underside of the liver. The internal bleeding was discovered later in the day as her hematocrit dropped and she passed black, blood stained stool. She was rushed in for emergency surgery to cauterize the bleeding. In the middle of the night her hematocrit began dropping again. Again she was rushed in for emergency surgery, this time to stop bleeding of punctured vessels within the liver. So, the needle biopsy had not only pierced the lymph node, it had broken blood vessels on the way through the liver.

After having four operations within three weeks she took a while to recover. But recover she has and we have not had any trouble with her liver since.

A year and a half after her transplant, Jenna had to have surgery to correct urinary reflux. While it was miserable to go back into that "hospital world", which we had so gladly left, this surgery seemed minor compared to what she had been through. She sailed through it and has been perfectly healthy ever since.

Jenna is now three years old and is in nursery school and swimming classes. She is a very active, agile girl who climbs everything she can reach. She is very loving and so independent that she insists on doing everything by herself.