This Valentine’s Day, while most of us have hearts on the mind, some are celebrating functioning kidneys, lungs or livers.
Because on top of the big day of love, February 14th is also National Organ Donor Day. And one family in Acadiana tells us they’re glad to be celebrating love and life this year.
He’s just as playful and active as any toddler, but most adults haven’t been through the likes of what little Liam has seen in his three years.
At just two months old, Liam was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare liver disease in infants. Liam’s mother Amy Williamson says his liver was already cirrhotic.
From then on, Liam’s parents knew he would undergo multiple procedures before one day needing a full liver transplant. They didn’t know that day would come just a couple of years later when his liver condition led to complications in his lungs.
“Right before he turned three, his birthday is in November, in August we found out he needed a transplant,” says Amy. “That came as a surprise to us because we thought it would be several years before he would require the transplant.”
Seventy-three days after he was put on the list, after his parents even attempted to offer their own livers, Liam’s donor was secured and the transplant performed.
This week, in time for Valentine’s Day and National Donor Day, Liam and his family are home after nearly three months.
“Seeing where we were and knowing where we are now, I look back and I think I don’t know how much longer he would’ve been with us,” says Williamson. “So having the donor give him that life, they truly breathed life into my son.”
It’s a new life Liam knows he’s been blessed with and his family is forever grateful.
“He will start school he will do all these milestones you want for your child,” says Williamson. “To see that and to see the miracles of organ donation and to know my child is here because someone else in their moment of loss gave someone else life, is so powerful.”
Follow more of Liam’s journey on Facebook at Loving Liam.
