RIVERTON, Utah — Riverton parents of a nine-week-old baby are asking for help to afford a liver transplant and other complications that come with their girl's rare condition.
Georgia Smith was diagnosed with Biliary atresia, a rare liver condition in infants when the bile ducts outside and inside the liver are scarred and blocked, her parents Rebecca Williams-Smith and Michael Smith said.
When Michael saw his daughter's skin looking yellowish, he initially thought it was jaundice, but decided to have a doctor take a look at her anyways.
"Ultrasound results came back and he says, 'Okay, this really, really doesn't look right,'" Smith recalled.
A biopsy at Primary Children's revealed Georgia's diagnosis as Biliary atresia.
“Just constantly checking her and making sure that her liver is still functioning, because, I guess, it can take a turn for the worse pretty quickly," said Rebecca.
Georgia underwent a procedure earlier this week which will help her liver function for now.
"She's doing better for now, but the Kasai procedure doesn't last forever. At some point she will end up needing a liver," said Michael, "So, we're just going through it and trying to figure out exactly what we're gonna do."
Michael and Rebecca said they’re not sure when Georgia will need a liver transplant, and they have a long road ahead of them in terms of the medical bills.
“That was our understanding that the cost would be probably around the quarter-million that we'd be paying out-of-pocket," said Rebecca.
As for the transplant, it could be one year or ten years from now.
“So obviously she's a tiny tiny baby, you know, she's like just over 7 pounds now at nine weeks old. So you know liver transplants kind of hard on little ones like that," Rebecca said.
Michael said they hope they are ready for it when the time comes for the procedure.
“I just hope that whenever it does come time for her to need a transplant, that we're not sitting here stressed out about the money portion of it," he said.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help cover Georgia's medical costs. For now, Georgia's parents will continue to hold her tight.
“There's nothing else you can really do at this point. You know, just try to comfort your baby as much as possible," said Michael.
