The Circle Family Story

Tamara and Stephan Circle have been happily married for almost 6 years and have been together for over 10 years.  Stephan is currently employed with The American Red Cross and serves as an Account Representative for the Greater Pittsburgh Area.  Tamara is the Chief Operating Officer for Hobby Prodigy, Pittsburgh’s first DIY Craft Studio. They have two loving and energetic little boys; Jackson (4) and Aiden (9). When Jackson was born on July 1st, 2014 their lives changed forever…

When Jackson was first born, his breathing was erratic and his oxygen levels were slightly low.  He had to stay in the hospital for an extra day to be monitored to make sure everything was okay.  After the extra day, he was deemed healthy enough to head home and all was well. While at home, Jackson was very fussy, and was not able to keep his bottles down at all.  Over the next few weeks, the Circle’s tried everything from different formulas, to sleeping patterns but to no avail. 

3 weeks after Jackson was born, the Circle’s convinced their Primary Care Physicians to order lab work on Jackson, and once the lab work was read, they were immediately sent to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh UPMC where their long journey began.  At 3 weeks old, Jackson was Jaundice, and his liver numbers were significantly elevated. He had a lengthy stay in the hospital where many tests were done to determine what was causing his liver issues. 

 It was obvious that he did have a problem with his liver, the doctors were trying to determine what the cause of this problem was. After about a week in the hospital Jackson was sent back home and the Circle’s were instructed to follow up with one of UPMC’s Pediatric liver specialists.  At this point, Jackson had to go through many different tests to rule out each specific liver disease. One of the tests Jackson went through was a Hidascan, which is able to check the flow of bile through the bile ducts in the liver. 

It was determined that there was no bile flow through Jackson’s liver and into the gallbladder, which meant all this bile was backing up in the liver and causing damage. His bile ducts exiting his liver were fused shut, and not properly formed. He was then properly diagnosed with Biliary Atresia.  Once diagnosed with Biliary Atresia it is vital to undergo a Kasai Procedure as soon as possible.

The Kasai Procedure fuses the liver directly to the small intestine bypassing the gallbladder. This allows bile to flow and temporarily relieve the damage being done to the liver. In most cases, this procedure does not help for long, and the child is placed on a transplant waiting list. In Jackson’s case, the procedure was a tremendous success and there was very minimal damage caused to his liver. The procedure was done when Jackson was 6 weeks old, and he did have a few lengthy stays in the hospital following the procedure. Jackson dealt with many bouts of cholangitis due to infection near the surgical site. 

Although Jackson has had a rough journey, he has ultimately come out on top through everything.  He is one of the very small percentage of children diagnosed with Biliary Atresia that do not have to be listed for transplant early in life. He is a very strong, outgoing and brave little boy and if you saw him today, you’d never be able to tell what kind of war he had to fight to stay alive when he was so new to this world. Chances are, at some point in Jackson’s life he will need a liver transplant, but the longer he can keep his native liver, the better his chances are for survival. 

During their countless stays in the hospital, and grueling nights watching their child suffer, The Circle’s noticed one thing. There were so many families going through the exact same pain, and some families that weren’t as lucky as them, and had it much worse. Considering the many blessing that were given to them throughout Jackson’s early life, and the outstanding care that they received at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh UPMC, The Circle’s wanted to find a way to give back to the hospital, and to help families with similar journeys who weren’t quite as fortunate as they were to have the support of such wonderful friends and family.  

They did their research, and as fate would have it, by recommendation of their pediatric liver specialist, they were introduced to Mark and Diane Sumner. Diane flew out to meet with the Circle’s, and immediately knew they would be the right fit to continue with their life saving mission. 

Together, the Circle’s and the Sumner’s work tirelessly to help families affected by pediatric liver disease and transplantation. The Circle’s have served as Co-Presidents of C.L.A.S.S. since 2015. Since then, they have supplied the family pantries on 3 floors at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh UPMC with snacks, drinks and quick meals for families who are staying there. They have also helped many families across the country with direct financial assistance to help when they struggle to make ends meet during their lengthy stays in the hospital. The Circle’s host family dinners throughout the year at the hospital and even host events honoring the nurses and doctors that were so instrumental in saving Jackson’s life. This is their mission, and their passion, to shine a light on a very challenging situation.

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