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I’ll never be able to explain the feeling I had every time her heart stopped. The blood was no longer running in my veins. I couldn’t move or speak, but I was praying in my heart every moment to God that I forbid him to take my little girl. —Darline, Liorah’s mom As time progressed, Liorah’s illness continued to worsen. She started to vomit everything she ate because her liver was so damaged. This caused her to have severe malnutrition, chronic pneumonia, and fragile bones, which meant that her ribs were breaking. David and Darline were heartbroken to witness their daughter, who was less than a year old, suffering so much. Darline wanted to do anything possible to save their daughter, and as the medical team thought Darline might be a more viable potential living donor, she went through the assessment process and was approved. Mother and daughter were scheduled for transplant on September 21st, 2019. Leading up to the transplant, Liorah was very sick with pneumonia and in and out of the hospital as the medical team worked to improve her condition. They were unable to create any improvements in Liorah’s health and decided to cancel the transplant. The lengthy surgery would be too risky to perform given her precarious health situation. She continued to get sicker despite efforts to help her and was put into intensive care. Liorah's heart stopped seventeen times in the span of two weeks and the doctors and nurses had to resuscitate her several times. Remembering this time, Darline says that “almost every time, I was next to her. Doctors and nurses were running in all directions to come and revive her. She had become so fragile that we were afraid to move her in bed or even to change sides. I’ll never be able to explain the feeling I had every time her heart stopped. The blood was no longer running in my veins. I couldn’t move or speak, but I was praying in my heart every moment to God that I forbid him to take my little girl.” Darline and David sat bedside with their daughter through it all and watched as her health declined and she began to throw up blood. Darline remembers it as “an intense experience to watch our child die every time and come back to life. I cried a lot because we felt so helpless. It was a lot of stress, sleepless nights, and physical and emotional fatigue. Mentally we were in a vacuum with so many unanswered questions. However, we kept the faith and prayed for God to give us the strength to endure and continue for our daughters.”
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Spring 2021
Liorah with mother, Darline, after her first surgery in December 2018.
By the end of November, the situation was dire. Liorah was still very ill. The medical team told Darline and David that the chances of Liorah surviving a minimum 8-hour surgery were very low and asked if Darline still wanted to be the living donor. Darline remembers telling them, “if there’s a 1% chance that she can be saved, I want to take the risk of doing it no matter what happens after that. When I think about those times, tears keep streaming down my face. At the hospital, I consoled another parent who had lost their child, knowing that I too could be in their place at any time.” On November 27th, 2019 both Darline and Liorah went into surgery simultaneously at two different hospitals. Darline says that “it was the hardest and longest day for my husband, the two dearest beings in his life were going into operating rooms and he didn’t know what was going to happen.” Liorah was in surgery for 13 hours, “Her little heart never stopped. She came out victorious. The operation was a success thanks to God and the dedication of the nurses and doctors at the Sainte-Justine Hospital,” said Darline and David, remembering it.
