What a Large Heart! This Woman Donated Her Liver to a Baby She’d Never Met

The Walker family have cause to give thanks for the entrance of Diana Rotter into their lives. Their baby girl, Natalia Walker, recently celebrated her first birthday and it was cause for celebration in more ways than one as it was the day she got a liver transplant from 30-year-old Rotter whom she’d never met, Yahoo Parenting reports.

Walker was born with ‘biliary artresia’. Her parents, Diane and Chris Walker, first noticed something was wrong when their daughter’s jaundice didn’t go away. A diagnosis revealed that her bile ducts hadn’t formed properly and an initial surgery which attempted to bypass the blocked ducts had been unsuccessful. Natalia needed a liver transplant.

Natalia’s parents were not donor candidates, so the baby was placed on the national organ transplant waiting list sometimes in April. Her christening ceremony in August paved the way as Diane Walker’s co-worker and friend, Joy, a guest at the event became worked up about Natalia’s health. Joy got home and told her daughter, Diana Rotter that,

“This baby is not going to survive without a liver.”

Rotter, a movie theatre manager said,

“My mom had been talking about [the Walker family] in general for months. She asked me if I would ever consider donating my liver… and I said sure.”

Rotter went through various tests from August until November, to confirm that she was, in fact, a match for baby Natalia. As Natalia’s conditioned worsened, doctors at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital decided the surgery had to be sooner rather than later and set the baby’s first birthday, 17 November, as the day to perform the surgery.

Rotter’s surgery took about four hours, and Natalia’s took eight as doctors addressed other complications which arose from the biliary atresia. Both are said to be doing well and Rotter has been discharged and is back to work; she is likely to lose a week worth of her income for the time off though. She says,

“(Natalia) is doing well so that’s all I really care about.”

A grateful Walker said,

“Last year, we were thankful for the baby and now we’re just thankful that we’ve gained so many new members to our family. Now we’re related: Diana is a part of my daughter so we’ve gained new family. Diana has given my daughter a chance to live.”