My daughter needed a liver transplant to save her life. BART is key to her ongoing care

A mother received a rosary of Our Lady of Lourdes from friends returning from Italy and prayed for a baby during years of trying. After 15 years without children, she became pregnant and held the rosary while praying for her child’s wellbeing, deciding to name her daughter after Our Lady of Lourdes. When her daughter was seven weeks old, a pediatrician found an enlarged abdomen and ordered tests. Doctors identified jaundice with very high bilirubin levels and suspected a liver blockage, diagnosing biliary atresia. The child required surgery, but the initial procedure did not resolve the condition, leading to recovery and plans for further treatment and transplant listing.

"Almost a decade ago, my friends went on a trip to Italy to visit the Vatican and they brought me back a rosary of Our Lady of Lourdes. As Catholics, we know her as the patroness of the sick and healing. So when I found out they were going, I asked them to think of me and pray for me because I wished for a baby. My husband and I had tried for kids throughout our marriage, but we decided to stop trying because of the toll it was taking on my mental health."

"After I found out I was pregnant, I put a lot of faith into that rosary. I would hold it and pray hard that my baby would be okay. You could say that as Catholics, we cling to a certain kind of belief and I held onto that. I told my husband that we were going to name our daughter after her, our Lady of Lourdes."

"Now, my Lulu is seven years old. But a month and a half after she was born, we went to the pediatrician and the doctor said they needed to do labs on her because they noticed her abdomen was a little large. After the tests, we were told they'd call us back with the results. We then received a call and they told us that we needed to go to UCSF Oakland Children's Hospital."

"Once we got there, they took her blood, ultrasounds, x-rays. The doctors told me she had jaundice, and they explained that her yellow color meant her bilirubin levels were very high. They said it looked like there was a blockage in her liver, which was then diagnosed as biliary atresia, and they told us she needed surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery didn't help."

Read at The Oaklandside