Yet through it all, the now-toddler has been the perfect patient, says her mother, Helen.
“She is so strong,” Helen said. “She never showed that she was sick. She would surprise all the doctors and nurses with how she handled everything.”
Mazie’s health challenges started when she was born seven weeks early. During her three-week stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, caregivers noticed her liver enzymes were higher than normal. She ended up at American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, where she stayed for the next four and a half months. Her diagnosis was biliary atresia, a condition that blocks bile flow from the liver to the small intestine.
At the hospital, Mazie underwent a Kasai procedure—a treatment during which the surgeon bypasses the blocked bile ducts and removes the gallbladder and replaces them with a segment of the child's small intestine. The procedure helped her eventually go home, but it wasn’t a permanent solution. “During her first year, Mazie’s doctors talked a lot about a liver transplant,” Helen said. “But they wanted her to hit at least 20 pounds before they put her on the wait list, and that was difficult for her.”
Mazie had struggled with eating and gaining weight from the day she was born. She received her nutrition through feeding tubes and eventually a central venous line. “She was a very sick baby,” said Helen. “It was hard for her to keep anything down. Her liver just kept getting harder and harder with every visit we had.”
Throughout it all, Mazie was under the care of Katryn Furuya, MD, UW Health’s pediatric transplant hepatologist. “Dr. Furuya was really great,” said Helen. “She didn’t take any chances when it came to Mazie’s health. She always tested for everything, just to be safe.”
When the little girl gained enough weight to be able to withstand a liver transplant, her doctors at UW Health put her on the wait list. She matched with a deceased donor, however Mazie had a respiratory infection that prevented her from safely undergoing transplant at that time, so the wait continued.
A month later, an unrelated living donor donated to Mazie—an adult who wanted to donate part of her liver to a stranger. “It was a very emotional day,” said Helen.
Now that Mazie doesn’t have to stay hooked up to tubes, she’s free to let her “wild and sassy and sweet” personality shine through, her mom says.
“She can be just a normal kid now,” Helen said. “Her favorite words are ‘no’ and ‘mine.’ She loves to give hugs … and she doesn’t like to say, ‘I’m sorry.’”
And Mazie’s favorite toy? A doctor set. “She knows how every tool in it works,” said her mom. “It’s crazy how much she retains from that entire time in the hospital.”