Child Featured in Appeal for Organs Gets Donor Liver

A 7-year-old girl who made a nationally broadcast appeal for organ donations was described as in stable condition after liver transplant surgery.

Christina Ann Wilson of Henrietta, N. Y., received a donor liver in an operation that began late Sunday and ended Monday morning, said Nancy Seeger at the University of Chicago’s Wyler Children’s Hospital.

“She’s critical but stable, the usual condition for patients of this surgery,” said Seeger. She added that the girl would remain in the hospital for about a month.

Girl Had Weeks to Live

“It saved her life,” Seeger said of the operation. “She probably had two to four weeks she could have sustained without getting a transplant.”

Seeger said the girl was alert and communicating with others within a few hours of the surgery.

Several weeks ago, Christina recorded a public-service announcement appealing for organ donations to the American Liver Foundation and it was broadcast nationwide, Seeger said.

The little girl was born with biliary atresia, obstruction of the bile ducts from the liver to the intestines. She received the liver of a 6-year-old Florida child who died Sunday of a stroke, Seeger said.

The spokeswoman said she did not know the identity or hometown of the donor.