GASTONIA, N.C. — A Gastonia family is looking forward to returning home after their three-month-old daughter received a lifesaving liver transplant. Sadie Johnson was placed on the transplant list and matched with a donor organ within days, a process her doctors told her family moved faster than they had ever seen.
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Her mom, Mariah Johnson, also a Gaston County Police officer, spoke with Channel 9’s Ken Lemon over Zoom from a hospital room in Pittsburgh.
Sadie was well on her road to recovery, having been playing in the room and not hooked up to machines, she said.
Sadie was two months old when her parents realized her gallbladder and bile ducts weren’t formed properly. She needed a liver transplant.
They went to a hospital on Memorial Day and were immediately transferred to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
“Her condition was going pretty fast downhill,” Johnson said.
Families normally wait three months or more for a donor.
Specialty doctors told Johnson that things moved faster than they had ever seen.
“She was placed on the transplant list on Friday, and then on Saturday they told us they found a liver for her, and the transplant was on Monday,” the mother said.
Sadie was in surgery for eight hours. Johnson said Sadie was a different child almost immediately afterward.
The mother is grateful for the donor who lost his life, but gave Sadie a chance to be a normal child.
“It saved my baby’s life, and I know there are plenty others out there relying on donors,” Johnson said.
Sadie’s recovery will take another three months or so before she can fly back home with her family.
A GoFundMe has been started to help support Sadie’s family, you can help at this link.