When Kelli Curvin noticed a yellow tint in her baby daughter's eyes, it was the first sign of liver failure from a condition called biliary atresia. In a partnership between CHKD hospital and UVA Health, Kelli was able to find a living donor to save her daughter's life. Transcript KELLI CURVIN Hi, I’m Kelli Curvin. I'm 38, born and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia. Josie is one of five. She's the youngest and the only girl. I have four boys before her. We were outside and I noticed that the whites of her eyes looked just ever so yellow. We came to CHKD. They did an ultrasound and more labs. And they essentially told me that she was in liver failure. FRANK DiPAOLA, MD Josie came to us at UVA as a transfer from CHKD. So Josie was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia. The primary treatment is a surgical therapy we call a Kasai. Unfortunately, Josie was fairly sick by the time she came to us, so it became apparent fairly early on that she would need a transplant. ANITA SITES, AG-ACNP There's close to 20,000 people waiting for liver transplants in the United States, and there are just not enough deceased donor organs to supply all those people in need. NICOLAS GOLDARACENA, MD In a living donor, a patient who is alive and healthy donates a portion of their liver to someone in need. That's why we are making a huge effort to grow this living donor program at UVA. CHRISTINA MILLER On Facebook, a friend of mine had shared a post about a baby who needed a liver transplant. KELLI CURVIN She messaged me and said that God had put it on her heart, that she wanted to be Josie's living donor. CHRISTINA MILLER She was, of course, very receptive to it, I think, as any mother would be who's fighting for their child in a situation like that. So she was very welcoming to me. KELLI CURVIN When she was in surgery, and we had to wait so long for 10 hours, I felt helpless. I wish that it could have been me instead of her. CHRISTINA MILLER I do remember one of my first questions when I got up to the room after the surgery is, “How's Josie?” And I remember them telling me that, you know, it was almost immediate, like after the liver went in, like her color came back to her body. It was just a deep sigh of relief to know that everything went okay for her, like how it was planned. FRANK DiPAOLA, MD If you look at centers across the country, living donor is about 10% of the total volume of pediatric liver transplant. We're going to do half of our transplants this year as living donor transplants. That allows us to get kids to transplant sooner. KELLI CURVIN Her prognosis is great. She's thriving. A year ago, she weighed 14 pounds and couldn't sit up on her own, and now she's about to start walking and she's close to 30 pounds. CHRISTINA MILLER It actually happened to be on my birthday a few weeks ago that Kelli sent this video of Josie taking her first steps. It was just it was just really special to be able to witness that. ANITA SITES, AG-ACNP Cristina does not like to have a lot of attention placed on her, so she's just another one of my really special patients who helped this precious little baby have a new chance in life.