Serena is now six and a half. She's active and she's a lot of fun
and her spirit is amazing.
She's full of energy and excitement, and just lives like she knows
that she's been given a wonderful opportunity.
I'm Miles Fawcett. -And I'm Serena.
And we received our care at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
About eight weeks after she was born
she was diagnosed with biliary atresia.
The conclusion was that she was going to need
a life-saving liver transplant.
And our world was just turned upside down.
We just counted on the nurses and the doctors
to lead us through this experience that was very confusing and frightening.
They were very positive and very gentle with us
at a time where we were very, very frightened.
One of the nurses had arranged for another family
who was on the other side of the transplant
for a similar situation to sit down with us and talk to us
and that really gave us a lot of encouragement and hope.
Without that I think we would have been much more lost.
They determined that I was a candidate for a liver donor for her.
She was seven months.
It was a really frightening experience for me.
half of our family was in surgery on one day,
but I remember Doctor Fishbein really instilled confidence
from the get-go that day.
Doctor Fishbein removed 13% of my liver
and transplanted it into her and replaced her entire liver.
Doctor Fishbein is an extraordinary surgeon
and was very successful.
And there was a challenging few months after that
but the nursing staff through the whole process
was amazing in supporting us
both with the physical needs of our daughter
as well as our emotional needs,
which was I think something that was unexpected
and something that goes well beyond.
And as one of the nurses said, they kind of became our family.
And then Doctor Kaufman, we always refer to him as a chemist.
He's always looking at the numbers
and figuring out the balance of medication,
and he's unbelievably passionate about the kids.
We're secondary, we're the mom, we're the dad,
but he knows our daughter and he follows her
and he engages with her whenever he sees her.
Doctor Kaufman and Doctor Fishbein are a great team.
We really felt a lot of confidence with them
and the two of them together are fantastic.
I feel really lucky that we were in the hospital we were in.
I feel...
I'm sorry.
I just feel, I feel thankful every single day.
It's given us a different perspective on life.
I think they gave us all a second chance, to be honest,
they gave us all a second chance and they took such good care
of people that are so important to me in my life
in every way they could. I'm forever grateful to them.
We really just appreciate where we are
and we appreciate what we've been through,
and we have a tremendous amount of gratitude
for the opportunity that they've given us to just live a normal life.
It really feels like that,
and we're thankful that Georgetown gave us that chance.