Liver Life Walk New York City

Meet your Pediatric Liver Champion Ruby Lou Rizzo. Moments after her birth, it was determined she would need to remain in the NICU at NY Presbyterian Lower Manhattan, due to her low birth weight and glucose levels. Over the next few days, Ruby’s labs were beginning to show signs of reduced liver function. She was a bit jaundiced, and her levels were not stabilizing, even though she did not appear to be in distress. After about a week, Ruby was transferred to Weill Cornell, where they continued to try to diagnose what was wrong. After a few days there, the doctors determined she would need to be transferred again, to NY Presbyterian Columbia University. During morning rounds the day following our arrival, we heard that she was in liver failure; this was the first time anyone had said it out loud. Her diagnosis: Neonatal Hemochromatosis, a very rare and potentially deadly condition where the mother’s own antibodies in utero attack the baby’s liver. After a few weeks of intense treatment and observation, beginning with entire blood replacement therapy, we held our breaths with each test to see if Ruby might recover on her own. She endured countless tests, treatments, and procedures until her doctors finally informed us that they had placed Ruby on the organ recipient list and told us to be ready to make a decision for a liver transplant. We got the call very early one morning.