Ocala boy with rare disorder receives lifesaving gift from nurse in Pennsylvania
Rasika Salva of Ocala watched as her young son’s health deteriorated. Not long after his birth, Logan, who turned 2 in October, had been diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that affected his liver.
Alagille syndrome can affect multiple organ systems of the body including the liver, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. Her son was on a donor list, but after six months of waiting, Salva inquired about a living donor program that put them on the road to a liver transplant for Logan.
The surgery took place on June 8. During such a procedure, “surgeons remove 20% to 25% of the liver from a healthy adult,” according to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh website, and “they then transplant that part of the liver into the child to replace their unhealthy one.” This is possible because the liver has the ability to regrow to a normal size.
The donor, Makenzie Beach, is a nurse at UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pennsylvania. Previously a stranger to the Salva family, she donated through the living donor program at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
According to her, she was “happy to be able to give back, and for the recipient to have been a child makes it that much more impactful.”
She met Logan for the first time via Zoom on Aug. 30 in an experience she described as “emotional.”
Currently, both donor and recipient are doing well. Beach has resumed normal activity and is back at work full time. For Salva, it’s been a joy watching Logan bounce back from the surgery.
She also gave an update on his recovery, adding, “his body has responded so beautifully to the donation.”
A living-donor liver transplant is not only a life-saving treatment for children with liver disease; it also allows for deceased-donor livers to be available for people on the transplant waiting list, according to the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Salva also emphasized the importance of living organ donation, stating: “Anybody who's thinking about doing this for somebody else that they know, or even somebody that they don't know, please really give it some serious thought because it can make a world of difference.”
She went on to add: “There's a human being that gets to be a part of this incredible world that might not have been able to be a part of it.”
Also grateful to the local community and her church in Ocala, Salva said, “The community was so helpful — to have that emotional support through the tough times, and even now afterwards, to have that community to rally you through.”
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The lives of an Ocala family have been changed forever by the altruistic gift from a nurse in Erie, Pennsylvania. “It’s not just a piece of an organ,” said Salva, expressing the impact Beach’s donation, “it’s a future that was just provided to him because Makenzie was kind enough to want to do this for a total stranger.”
She added, “To say that we’re over the moon doesn’t even cover it.”
The Salva family has a GoFundMe page to help with expenses: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-salva-family-after-medical-emergency?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala family rejoices after boy, 2, receives liver transplant
