Family of 6-Month-Old Darlene Chávez Asks for Help With Life-Saving Liver Transplant
One Los Angeles family is living every parent’s worst nightmare after doctors diagnosed their six-month-old daughter, Darlene Chávez, with rare liver disease biliary atresia. Now, she is bleeding internally, and has just three months to live if she doesn’t receive a partial liver transplant.
Darlene’s parents are reaching out to anyone that can help — through donations, or with the transplant itself.
The family is looking for a partial liver donor for Darlene
As explained on Darlene’s GoFundMe page, doctors diagnosed the infant with biliary atresia back in October. This means she needs a liver transplant, but “thankfully” she “only needs partial of a liver which a living person can potentially be a donor… or wait for a deceased one.” The donor must be her blood type, which is O+.
While doctors originally gave Darlene almost a year to receive the transplant, L.A. Children’s Hospital recently found she is bleeding internally. Meaning “her liver is shutting down faster than expected,” and she only has three months to live without the transplant.
The family set up the GoFundMe to help Darlene’s parents financially. This is due to the “very time consuming” hospital procedures” that have caused them to miss work. At this point, they have used up all their paid time off. That being said, even more importantly, the family is desperately looking for a matching donor for the baby.
The baby’s parents are not a match
While Darlene’s parents wish they could donate their own partial liver to their baby, they are sadly not a match. Her mother wrote on the GoFundMe page: “Unfortunately; her father is not comparable with her blood type. On the other hand, I am but after getting tested sadly my liver ducts are not comparable with hers.”
For that reason, they ask “anyone with blood type O, doesn’t matter if it’s O+ or O-, who is willing to be her potential partial liver donor” to submit an application or get in touch with the family. As per Darlene’s mother, the donation process would be covered by the baby’s insurance.
At this point, Darlene is “stable and doing well,” but is still in need of the transplant. Her parents explain that they have received eight donor applications so far, of which two were not a match. Incredibly enough, “Darlene continues to be strong” and in “high spirits,” with family calling the six-month-old a “beautiful baby girl with the most amazing and supporting parents.”
The family desperately asks for help
Darlene’s grandparents talked to Univision about their precious granddaughter, telling the outlet that she is thankfully jumping up the United Network for Organ Sharing list. Still, grandmother Zoila Chávez said, “I ask, as a grandmother, mother, and a human being, that if you have blood type O and could donate a small part of your liver, we would be so happy.”
The six-month-old’s family asks for help from anyone that can donate to their GoFundMe page, anyone that has leads for the partial liver transplant, or simply by having Darlene in their prayers.
