For my twin sister, my brother from another mother, and my sweet, little miracle monkey niece, “Nuggy”.

On Thursday, March 12th, Charlotte was home sick with what was believed to be another munchkin germ picked up and brought home from school. With mom by her side all day and dad checking in on his girls while on business travel, it was a family mending a kiddo with a stomach bug; until it wasn’t. What transpired from there were six days every parent fear they never have to live through with their children. Thursday evening, Charlotte became unresponsive as mom tried to wake her up for bath time. Mom rushed Charlotte to the ER where Charlotte’s medical state suddenly became life threatening. Charlotte seized, convulsed, thrashed, yelled. Mom could only watch her baby daughter thrash and fight for her life. Dad, literally days from coming home, could only provide indirect support through a phone to mom as he sees and hears his baby daughter fighting for her life. The hospital in Austin did everything they could to right the ship, but they were outmatched; Charlotte was in acute liver failure. Charlotte was intubated and life-lighted to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston in the early hours of Friday morning. There wasn’t room for mom in the helicopter, so mom saw her daughter med-evac’ed, and then drove 2.5 hours to Houston. Concurrently, Dad navigated national and global disruption of air travel to get to Houston. Charlotte, mom, and dad spent the next five agonizing days in the PICU at Texas Children’s Hospital. At one point Charlotte’s ammonia levels spiked to 30x normal levels for a toddler; as if it wasn’t hard enough to wonder if your daughter will survive, there was now worry about irreparable brain damage if she does. The medical team exercised every possible medical intervention option, including Charlotte being placed on the liver transplant list at 1A status (highest and most critical classification). Charlotte’s medical team tried everything they could to stabilize her and get her liver to recover on its own. After 5 days of CRRT (continuous renal replacement therapy), TPE (therapeutic plasma exchange), platelet infusions, electrolyte infusions, pressers, pain and sedative medications, infectious disease therapeutic intervention…nothing worked and there was never any signal from Charlotte’s liver. On Tuesday, March 17th, mom and dad learned they may have a potential donor, but they would need to sign off on a transplant and let go of all hope Charlotte could recover, whole. A transplant would be life altering, a requirement for Charlotte to live forever with a riskier bill of health on immunosuppressive medications. This is an unfair decision for parents to weigh, especially without a clue as to what caused this to happen in the first place. That night, in the most agonizing way imaginable, the decision was made for mom and dad; Charlotte told them, non-verbally and in no uncertain terms, that there was no organic “test then wait and see” option. On the morning of Wednesday, March 18th, Charlotte had her liver and gall bladder removed, and a donor liver without a gall bladder was transplanted, duct-to-duct. They would only learn from Charlotte’s pathology team a couple days later that Charlotte only had 5-10% of living liver tissue left. The liver transplant saved her life.

We all know how much it costs to go get a root canal at the dentist. Imagine the medical costs Charlotte’s mom and dad are facing with ER, to intubation, to life-flight, to days and days of CRRT/TPE with pain and infectious disease medications, to liver transplant, to 3-4 weeks in the pediatric ICU, to 3-4 weeks in-hospital extended care unit, to countless medical appointments in the future, and at minimum, twice daily immunosuppressive medication for the rest of their days. Now imagine Charlotte’s future of facing high-risk-level health insurance premiums, countless medical appointments, and at minimum, twice daily immunosuppressive medications for Charlotte for the rest of her life after mommy and daddy are gone.

Not only does your contribution go to the brunt of the initial medical expenses incurred to save her life, but a good portion will be put into an interest-earning account from which Charlotte can draw when she needs it in the future. Any amount of contribution is helpful and greatly appreciated. On behalf of mom, dad, and Charlotte, THANK YOU all for your thoughts, prayers, energy, vibes, and of course, donations/contributions.

With love,

Charlotte’s Family