The first heart-stopping moment happened for Jodi-Ann O’Sullivan before her baby son, Jah’siah, was born.
At seven months pregnant, O’Sullivan’s ultrasound revealed a wrapped umbilical cord around her neck, prompting UPMC Harrisburg doctors to induce labor. Jah’siah was born silent, without breathing or crying, which was heartbreaking for any parent to witness.
“I was just thinking, ‘God, what is going on?’” O’Sullivan recalls. “When they finally got him to breathe, and I heard him cry, that was the moment I felt pure joy.”
However, what began as a celebration rapidly turned into a nightmare. When Jah’siah was brought in for a regular circumcision, the doctor returned with bad news: the newborn was not clotting. It was an early warning symptom of acute liver failure, a potentially fatal illness.
Before long, the family had traveled from UPMC Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.
According to Dr. George Mazariegos, Chief of Pediatric Transplantation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Jah’siah’s illness resulted in a 100% fatality rate without a liver transplant. “We quickly realized that we needed to act fast,” Dr. Mazariegos said, adding that infants requiring liver transplants are a national priority.
Surprisingly, a suitable donor liver became available locally—an event that is very rare. Even more incredible, the donor was a child living directly down the hall from Jah’siah. The child’s parents, who were also in a sad predicament, made the noble decision to donate the organs of their own dying three-year-old child, saving the lives of several youngsters, including Jah’siah.
“Those families who make that courageous decision to donate their loved one’s organs, in the midst of such grief, are heroes,” Dr. Mazariegos said.
The kindness of the donor family completely overwhelmed Jodi-Ann O’Sullivan. “That kid’s parents saved so many lives, including my son’s,” she tells me. “We’ll never be able to thank them enough.”
Because only a portion of the boy’s liver was transplanted to small Jah’siah, Mazariegos noted that understanding how a partial liver might regenerate is one of the relatively recent advancements in the field over the last 30 years.
The obstacles for O’Sullivan did not end with Jah’siah’s transplant. A fire destroyed the family’s home the same week she found out her son needed a transplant. Throughout it all, she remained focused on Jah’siah, who quickly began to show signs of healing following his transplant.
