For many, performing a kind or courteous action might involve a simple act of allowing another shopper with just a few items to get ahead of us at the checkout line. Or perhaps we may pause a moment and hold a door open for an elderly couple attempting to enter an establishment. Random acts of kindness that most good-hearted individuals may perform in a day, do so without giving them much thought.
In most instances it costs very little for us to allow a shopper to get ahead of us at a checkout counter, or to hold a door open for someone…at best a few minutes of our time.
However, to give up part of an organ to save another life of someone we hardly know, is an awe inspiring selfless and generous act of kindness that gives us a reason to believe that miracles do indeed exist.
New Jersey babysitter Kiersten Miles was one of those miracles, hired for the summer to look after toddler Talia Rosko who was suffering from a rare liver disease known as Biliary Atresia. The disease usually appears about 2-months after birth affecting the bile ducts within the liver, preventing the organ from effectively filtering and removing waste products from the body.
Babysitter donates part of liver to babyhttps://t.co/oeOCZpDlOv pic.twitter.com/OefMNOyONr
— Big Daddy Walker Productions DJs (@BigDaddyWalker) July 8, 2017
This causes the bile to be trapped inside the liver, quickly causing damage and scarring of the liver cells (cirrhosis), and eventually liver failure. The disease affects about 200 children a year, and the only remedy is a liver transplant.
Without a transplant doctors informed parents George and Farra Rosko, that little Talia wouldn’t live past the age of two.
The Jackson, New Jersey couple was devastated at hearing the news. After 7 months of not being able to find a suitable donor for their daughter, their hopes had all but vanished, until 21 year old college student Kiersten Miles responded to a want-ad for a nanny, posted by the Roskos’.
“We’ve been in limbo, I would say, since we found out that she needed the transplant. Every day, we’re wondering, waiting,” Rosko said.
Miles, who had only been employed for 3-weeks as a summer babysitter, suddenly informed the stressed out couple she wanted to donate part of her liver to save Talia’s life.
“It just seemed like a small sacrifice to potentially save a life, and then I went forth with telling the parents,” said Kiersten.
“I was like, ‘Kiersten this is not like donating blood, this is serious. You need to talk to your parents and you need to like do research‘”, Talia’s mother implored.
“She was like, ‘I already did.’ She was like, ‘I’m compatible‘”.
After 6-months of testing and paperwork, Kiersten was admitted to the hospital on January 11th and donated part of her liver, hoping to save the life of 16-month old Talia Rosko, a child she only knew initially for 3 weeks before she selflessly offered her own liver.
However, before the surgery, Kiersten was told she would never be able to donate again, even if she herself had a child in a similar situation. But that didn’t matter. It was the here and now that mattered. The successful operation lasted almost 14 hours.
She told local affiliate WTXF; “It’s such a small sacrifice when you compare it to saving a life. Some of her doctors said she possibly wouldn’t have made it past two years old.”
Adding; “We both went through the surgery and came out with flying colors. As soon as the surgeons left the room, I started crying.”
“I remembered exactly why I did it,” Kiersten said. “I would 100% do it again.”
“I could tell you thank you for the rest of my life every single day, and it wouldn’t be enough,” Rosko said.
This story syndicated with permission from My Faith News