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Charlie was first brought into the hospital for a hernia, but the doctor noticed his skin color was more yellow than it should be. He was taken by ambulance to Mercy in Des Moines for emergency surgery. Once in Des Moines he had multiple labs, X-rays, CT scans, an enema, rectal and liver biopsies and the list goes on in trying to determine why his liver wasn’t working.  After all the tests and biopsies, there was hope that it wasn’t a serious liver disease. He went in for a cholangiogram to “flush” his liver out to try and get the bile flowing again, unfortunately that did not work. After 3 weeks there were still no answers as to what was wrong. The doctors had to go in surgically to see why the bile wasn’t draining. During this surgery the surgeon found that the tubes coming off the liver were not formed correctly, which now gave a diagnosis.  Charlie was diagnosed with a serious liver disease called Biliary Atresia type 2A; so rare that it only occurs in 5% of children. The surgeon made the decision that he would need to perform a procedure that would remove his gallbladder and bile duct tree from his liver and reroute his small intestine to his liver to help drain the bile. Statistically this procedure does not work in one third of the kids it is performed on. Unfortunately, Charlie was a part of that one third group. The surgery was unsuccessful, so now little Charlie needs a liver transplant. He will be on the list for a transplant and must wait, praying that he doesn’t get worse while waiting for this life saving organ. Once the phone call comes that there is a liver ready, Charlie and his family will have to leave at the drop of a hat and will live in Omaha for a month or two while Charlie heals from his transplant.

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You can also help Charlie on GoFundMe.

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