FALCON, Colo. (KOAA) — 10-month-old Emma Jones is battling a rare condition affecting one in 18,000 children globally. Her family currently resides in Falcon.
It’s called Biliary Atresia, a life-threatening liver disease in infants where bile ducts inside or outside the liver are damaged, preventing bile flow, causing jaundice, and leading to liver cirrhosis.
Immediate surgery was necessary.
“I think initially think you know, what caused it, right? Why did this happen?” says Kyle Jones, Emma’s father.
Emma currently feeds at night through a tube into her nose. She also takes some medications through the device.
“It helps her gain weight,” says Kyle.
For now, Emma is relatively stable, a happy baby waving and smiling at any unfamiliar faces.
But she can’t keep going in her current state.
“They told us very early on that she was going to need a liver transplant at some point in time,” says Kyle. “It was right away like if I can be the one to do that, then I'm gonna do that.”
The decision to remove a portion of his own liver to help his daughter was an easy one.
“I support him 100%. It is scary, but I'm excited,” says Abbie Jones, Kyle’s wife, and Emma’s mother.
Kyle’s surgery is scheduled for March 16.
“There's gonna be some sort of energy-spiritual thing in there that definitely just really bonds us even more after we both go through something like this.”
Click here if you want to help the family.
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