{"id":9685,"date":"2022-07-27T14:39:18","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T04:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=9685"},"modified":"2022-08-22T08:22:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T22:22:58","slug":"donatelife-week-chloes-donation-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/donatelife-week-chloes-donation-story\/","title":{"rendered":"DonateLife Week: Chloe’s donation story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Chloe is<\/span><\/span><\/strong> a very cheerful five-year-old, who loves school, giving warm cuddles, and has just started learni<\/span><\/span><\/strong>ng how to ride a bike.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

While nobody would ever think Chloe is different to any other child her age, she will proudly tell anyone that she has had<\/span>\u00a0a liver tran<\/span>splant.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chloe developed jaundice shortly after birth and when the yellowness in <\/span>her skin didn\u2019t go away, her parents Valencia and<\/span> Aaron took her to\u00a0<\/span>their GP, who told them to visit The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital (RCH) Emergency Department for furth<\/span>er tests. <\/span><\/p>\n

For Valencia and Aaron, the news that their five-week-old baby would not be allowed to leave the hospital was earth shattering. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI ca<\/span>n still remember every single detail when the gastroenterologist came into the room, wheeling his black suitcase, to diagnose her with Biliary Atresia, which was such a foreign concept to us,\u201d Valencia said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTears ran down my face while I held her tight, I just wanted to wake up from this bad dream.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Valencia and Aaron spent the next few months in and out of hospit<\/span>al having countless blood tests, and IV inserts, feeling as though the bad news about Chloe\u2019s condition was never-ending.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, while napping next to Chloe in her hospital room, Valencia was woken up by Aaron, who had just been informed by their doctor that they may have a liver for Chloe.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose exact words are forever imprinted in our memory. I felt like I had finally woken up from my bad dream.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>We understood that success was not guaranteed but we ha<\/span>d heard of so many successful stories so we were hopeful,” Valencia said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were tears again but this time it was tears of joy. I started imagining what her true skin colour would be, and what she would look like without her distended tummy, it was a surreal feeling.”<\/span><\/p>\n

At eight-months old, Chloe had her liver transplant and spent a further two weeks in hospital due to complications. <\/span><\/p>\n

Life post-transplant was a rollercoaster for Chloe, Valencia and Aaron but it was one the still-new family were gladly riding.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were many ups and milestones in between her hospital admissions. We had to do another procedure to fix a narrowing duct close to her liver a few years post-transplant, that was taken out in October 2019,” Valencia said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCoincidentally, that same morning her grandfather passed away. Chloe has not been admitted since and her health is stable and better than ever. We believe she has two guardian angels looking after her, her donor and her grandfather.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChloe is living her best life now and making up for lost time. She lives normally like any other kid and you wouldn\u2019t even know that she had a liver transplant and is immunocompromised.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a fighter and loves life.”<\/span><\/p>\n

This week is DonateLife Week, a national campaign encouraging Australians to register as organ and tissue donors.\u00a0Chloe\u2019s parents are encouraging everyone to consider registering as an organ donor.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe importance of organ donation was experienced first-hand by our family. Aaron and I came to Australia to study, and decided to raise our family here,” Valencia said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe often looked back and thought about what would happen to Chloe if we decided to raise her elsewhere, and agree she probably wouldn\u2019t be with us today.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so thankful and forever indebted to our donor family who said yes to organ donation at a time when they were experiencing so much grief for the loss of their loved one. We can all register now and save lives later.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet your legacy live on in somebody else\u2019s body.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on DonateLife Week or to register your decision to become a donor, visit: <\/span>https:\/\/donatelife.gov.au\/<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chloe is a very cheerful five-year-old, who loves school, giving warm cuddles, and has just started learning how to ride a bike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":9686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9685"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9698,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9685\/revisions\/9698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}