Georgia Toddler Turns 3 After Liver Transplant From His Mother

ATLANTA, GA — Three-year-old Wesley Melville, a Georgia toddler, was born into the world fighting. Almost from the day he was born in early December 2017, Wesley had jaundice that caused his entire body — including the whites of his eyes — to turn yellow, according to a press release from the Children's Organ Transplant Association.

Three weeks later, Wesley was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a childhood liver disease in which one or more bile ducts are abnormally narrow, blocked or absent. While biliary atresia occurs in one of 10,000-15,000 live births in the United States, the press release said, Wesley's parents Elizabeth and Jonathan were still stunned.

"Before he had even stubbed his toe, we had to hand him over to a team of surgeons who removed his malformed gall bladder, cut into the bottom of his liver and attached his bile ducts to his small intestine to create drainage in the rare hope that it might save his liver," Elizabeth said in the release.

During Wesley's three-month checkup, the pediatrician informed the Melvilles that Wesley's liver was hardening, and he would likely need a liver transplant before his second birthday. Elizabeth contacted COTA for financial help, because COTA's model shifts the responsibility for fundraising to a community team of trained volunteers. COTA formed a fundraising team for Wesley, and he was admitted to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta in mid-April 2018. He was officially listed for a liver transplant just a few days later.

According to the COTA release, no one knows how long a transplant-needy child or young adult will have to wait for "the call" that the necessary organ had been found. But Wesley's own mother answered that call. Knowing she and her son shared the same blood type, Elizabeth underwent extensive testing to see if she could possibly donate a portion of her liver to Wesley—and she was a match.

Just 17 days after Wesley was listed for a liver transplant, a portion of Elizabeth's liver was transplanted into Wesley—her surgery was done at Emory University Hospital, and his was completed at CHOA. He underwent two emergency bowel resection surgeries following the transplant before heading down the road to recovery.

"I was a match for my son and he survived a liver transplant and two bowel resection surgeries. Everything has been worth it to see him pink up, to watch his eyes get white and to see my liver working perfectly in him," Elizabeth said in her blog included in the press release. "Here's to a future of more kisses than pokes and more days at home than the hospital."

Wesley turned 3 this December. His lab results are monitored every three months, and transplant center visits have been reduced to once per year, the release said.

"We reached out to the Children's Organ Transplant Association prior to Wesley being officially listed for a new liver because a COTA family highly recommended we do so. COTA's staff members were able to talk us through, step-by-step, what needed to be done," Elizabeth said in the release. "COTA was going to fight for us and help us by doing the heavy lifting so we could simply be there for our baby boy. We struggle to even put into words 'the gift' COTA is to our family and will continue to be for a lifetime."