The story of Maverick
Maverick was born September 14, 2015, with a rare disease call Biliary Atresia. first adn formost i want to give everyone a quick overview of what Biliary Atersia (BA) is, it is liver disease in infants that has no proper bile drainage. With the bile not draining it cause cirrhosis of the liver which in turn cause liver failure. There is no known cause for BA and the only treatment is the Kasai procedure or transplant. The Kasai procedure is not a germinate cure however it has an 80% success rate within the first 7 weeks of life. if they receive the procedure after 7 weeks chances of success decrease significantly and children usually end up needing a liver transplant before the age of 5 years.
Maverick was diagnosed with BA a month after his birth and received his kasai procedure January 26 2016. He spent the first year of his life in the hospital due to complications. Maverick faced many challenges after his surgery, where they attached his intestines to his liver had developed major leaks and ended up causing a very serious infection where they had to rush him back in the OR for an emergency surgery to stop the leakage , after that he developed two different types of blood infections, his poor little body was so exhausted he couldn’t even breath on his own without help, after month and months of being in a medically induced coma so his body could heal from the inside out he was finally woke up and from there he was on the right road to recovery. He still had many obstacles to overcome, he went through withdraws (that is still hard to write as a mother) from pain medication, we had months and months of physical and speech therapy, class after class on medications, removing and re-inserting the feeding tube he was going home on as well as how to operate the machines. Maverick and our family as a whole had so Mountains to move but despite them all we came out on top.
Maverick is thriving although they suspect he may need a transplant before he is 5 ( due his continuous elevating liver numbers) maverick is moving mountains and defining the odds.