A life taken. A life given. A life shared.

Kaitlyn and Hannah When she read the article in the Cape Cod Times about the 11-year-old girl who underwent a life-saving liver transplant, Melissa Dunphe knew. “Too many pieces fit for it not to be.” She knew that the child, who was at the same hospital on the same floor on the same day, had to be the one who received her five-year-old daughter Kaitlyn’s liver. Five years earlier, at eight months old, Kaitlyn was in a car accident that left her without the use of her limbs and unable to breathe on her own. During her short life, her parents made moments matter. “She was a very happy child,” her mom Melissa says. “She loved life — going for walks, having her nails painted and going to the beach. “We knew she wouldn’t live long, but I never expected it to be so soon.” Two lives inexplicably intertwined In the early hours of Jan. 29, 2013, alarms were sounding in the Dunphe home in Orange, Massachusetts. Kaitlyn was unresponsive. She was rushed to a local hospital and then transported to Boston Children’s Hospital. Meanwhile, more than 100 miles away on Cape Cod, Hannah Swift was vomiting and suffering severe headaches and extreme disorientation. The fifth-grader, who’d always been healthy, was in acute liver failure. The next morning, a special team brought her to Boston Children’s, where within hours her family was told she would need a liver transplant to survive. “That was the day we learned Kaitlyn’s brain had stopped functioning,” says Meli...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Our Patients’ Stories Donate life Donate life month Liver transplant Liver Transplant Program National Donate Life Month organ donation organ donor Pediatric Transplant Center (PTC) Source Type: news