Help Sophie Thrive

Donation protected

Our daughter, Sophie Marie Burrows, is three months old and was just diagnosed with a rare liver condition called Bilary Atresia. Roughly 1 in 15,000 children suffer from this disorder that begins in infancy. From birth, or soon after, the ducts which are designed to carry bile from within the liver down to the gall bladder and small intestine became inflamed or blocked. This bile then backs up into the liver and causes scarring and damage.

After a recent checkup, we were advised that we needed to get Sophie into Anchorage immediately as it was finally recognized as something more serious than jaundice. On March 27th, Sophie underwent an emergency surgery associated with Bilary Atresia called a Kasai procedure where her gall bladder was removed and her small intestine was cut and attached to the bottom of her liver. Unfortunately, after the past 3 months of backed-up toxins, her liver is in very poor condition, has advanced cirrhosis and will eventually require a liver transplant.

After 3 days in the PICU, we are now in the pediatric wing of the hospital while Sophie recovers from the Kasai surgery. We don’t know how well or for how long her liver will continue to function and sustain in its already weakened condition so consistent blood tests of her liver’s bilirubin levels will be required after we leave the hospital.

A visit with the gastrointestinal doc soon will hopefully give a better picture of what to expect in the coming weeks and how to assess the deadline for a needed new liver. It could be one month or nine months before the needed transplant happens by the specialists at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

We do have insurance with Christian Care Medi-Share and are in the process of seeing what aspects of this process they will or won’t cover.

Funds will be used for:

Offsetting this initial first wave of medical costs that Medi-Share doesn’t cover.
Ongoing medicines to help her liver continue to function until the transplant.
Housing and food while in Anchorage for these couple of weeks.
Flights between Anchorage and Port Alsworth for medical testing that will be done in the coming months.
Likely trip to Washington in the coming weeks for an outpatient visit with Seattle Children’s Hospital to get an initial assessment from them.

The upcoming liver transplant will also have substantial costs but we are still in the process of figuring those numbers out and talking with our insurance company.

We appreciate your financial gifts and your prayers more than we can completely explain. Our ultimate hope lies in the character and love Jesus Christ has for us and we trust Him through this process. And yes, it still is very hard and scary. We love Sophie very much and are going to do everything within our power to get her the care she will need for the rest of her life so that she can thrive.