3-Month-Old New Jersey Girl In Need Of Life-Saving Liver Transplant

RED BANK, N.J. (WCBS 880) — A New Jersey family is looking for an organ donor to save the life of a 3-month-old girl battling a devastating liver disease.

Two weeks after Edie Rose O’Neill was born, she became sick with an undiagnosed liver disease.

Her health quickly deteriorated on Jan. 11, and she was airlifted to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she is getting around-the-clock treatment in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Her only hope now is a liver transplant.

“All we can do from here is transplant her liver, there’s no other option,” her mother, Bridget O’Neill, of Red Bank, tells WCBS 880. “We’re talking about weeks instead of even months to work with.”

Doctors are looking for a very specific donor profile and they’re hopeful they can find a living organ donor.

“Someone between 21 and 30 years old, either an O blood type or an A blood type — so it could be positive or negative, and around 100 pounds or less, which is very difficult to find and we acknowledge that,” O’Neill said. “She receives blood and blood product every single day basically all day and that’s kind of keeping her plugging along for right now while we try to go through this process of finding either someone that matches or she’s also very high on the deceased donor list, but because she’s a baby it’s very difficult to find someone who meets the specifications of body type and weight that would be appropriate for her, she’s a little over 8 pounds.”

The liver is the only organ in the body that can regenerate, meaning the livers of both the donor and the recipient can grow back to full size approximately three months after surgery.

If you or someone you know can help this family, contact them directly at EdieTheExtraordinary@gmail.com.

A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help raise money to pay for medical costs not covered by insurance.

Neil A. Carousso produced this story and interviewed the family for WCBS Newsradio 880.