Support Olivia’s Journey to a Healthy Life
Story
On December 20th of 2024 our beautiful daughter Olivia was born, immediately rushed to the NICU with fluid on her lungs she spent 6 days there on a cpap machine. 6 days after that at only 12 days old she was life flighted to Levines children’s PICU after getting a horrible case of RSV and was on a ventilator for 13 days, by the grace of God we got to come home after 31 days admitted. One day after we got home from that stay, I noticed Olivia’s poops were not the normal newborn “ mustard “ color and that she was not losing her jaundice color. I went to Levines children’s to have bloodwork done and after what felt like the longest few hours of my life in the ER the doctor came in to tell me the devastating news that our precious 11 week old daughter has a rare liver disease called “ biliary atresia”. Biliary atresia is a rare, life-threatening liver disease that affects infants. It occurs when the bile ducts, which carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder and small intestine, are blocked or scarred. This prevents bile from draining, causing it to build up and damage the liver. The damage can lead to cirrhosis, scarring, and loss of liver function and tissue. 3 days after our results, she had the Kasai surgery which aims to restore bile flow from the liver to the small intestine by connecting a segment of the small intestine to the liver, bypassing the blocked bile ducts. Last week, we got the news that Olivia has stage 4 fibrosis and is going to need a liver transplant soon. We are waiting and praying on insurance approval now and after that we will be traveling to one of highest ranked children’s hospital in the US, Pittsburgh children’s hospital. We plan to go the living donor route, with my husband as the first one to be evaluated. Our surgeon has told us to plan to stay local for 3 months. As my husband AJ is the sole provider of our family, with me being a stay at home mom of 3 children, this will be challenging to keep up with our bills at home, afford a place to live in Pennsylvania for a few months for the 5 of us, groceries & all the other things that come along with traveling. I come to you humbly and ask if you feel led to donate we would be so thankful and it would bless our family tremendously. We trust that God is going to provide, and we trust HIS plan always! Our beautiful Olivia has been through so much and no parent wants to see their child go through any pain. We are so ready for her to get to live a healthy life. Ultimately we ask for prayers, we know who the ultimate healer, the greatest physician is and we know He has a big plan for Olivia’s life! Thank you so much!!
Organizers :
Abby Polk is organizing this fundraiser.