COTA for Isla's Journey

Our Story

Our sweet Isla.

Born on November 19, 2025. She’s become a sweet, happy baby who loves to smile.

On the afternoon of April 10, 2026, Isla went to her 4-month checkup and the pediatrician told us to pack a bag and go to the VCU Children’s Hospital ER due to Isla’s liver feeling enlarged. She’d had some lingering jaundice and a few off diapers but was otherwise acting totally normal.

At the VCU Children’s Hospital they found that she was in liver failure and had a brain bleed. They treated her with vitamin K, plasma, and another medication to help her blood clot and immediately contacted Georgetown University Hospital as they are experts in pediatric liver issues.

Isla was medevac’d to Georgetown University Hospital the next day where the team immediately put us at ease and went straight to work figuring out what was going on.

Isla has biliary atresia—a rare liver disease that affects how her body drains bile and can damage her liver over time.

Right now, she’s actually doing better than many babies at this stage, and we are so, so grateful. She’s still our happy girl. Still smiling. Still shining.

But this is still really serious.

There’s no known cause.

There’s no cure.

The only long-term treatment is a liver transplant.

And something I keep thinking about… not that long ago, this wouldn’t have even been understood. Babies like her didn’t have the chance she has now. So we are incredibly grateful for modern medicine… while also walking through how heavy this really is.

So yes, you’ll see her smiling and being her sweet self.

But behind the scenes, it’s a lot of appointments, a lot of monitoring, and the reality that things can change quickly.

On April 17, 2026, Isla was officially listed for a liver transplant.

This means she is now eligible to receive organ offers at any time, and we are now in a place of waiting and being ready at all times. Our phones will need to stay on, charged, and close, because the call could come when we least expect it.

Her current PELD score is 13, and while we are still learning what all of this fully means, we are trusting the process and the team caring for her.

This feels like such a heavy but important step forward. It’s emotional, scary, and hopeful all at the same time.

Please continue to pray for Isla…for her strength, her healing, and for the right donor at the right time

We’re just taking it one day at a time. Holding onto the good, while being honest about what this is.

She’s so strong. More than she should ever have to be.

Thank you for loving her

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.