About the Nonprofit
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Our strong Savanna has endured a lot in her short life. She came early on June 24, 2020, at 35 weeks and 3 days. Because she was born premature, she was taken right from our arms and went straight to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Northwest Community Hospital. After a couple days, the NICU doctors noticed that her bilirubin levels, which cause jaundice, were not going down. The possibility of biliary atresia and a liver transplant were mentioned but still seemed unlikely at the time. Biliary atresia is a relatively rare (occurring in 1 out of every 10,000 live births), congenital liver disease. In biliary atresia, the bile ducts are either not formed or formed incorrectly and become inflamed and blocked soon after birth. This causes bile to remain in the liver, where it starts to destroy liver cells rapidly and cause cirrhosis or scarring of the liver. Its cause is currently unknown. The only cure for biliary atresia is liver transplantation. Savanna is actively looking for a healthy liver and we are working to secure funding through events and autions.
