My First Tiny Light {Lethbridge Tiny Light Photographer}

Meet Koral. She’s the kind of little girl who dives head first into life. She wastes no opportunity to explore the world around her, or to laugh infectiously. No chair, or hill or rock goes unclimbed while she is around, and she has a giggle that could melt the heart of a snowman.

In April, Koral will celebrate her 3rd birthday. A milestone her parents were once afraid she would never see.

When Koral was born, her parents noticed her skin and eyes getting more yellow, and knew that something was wrong. They were told that their daughter simply was jaundiced. Thankfully, Korals mom, Keri, followed her gut instinct and sought out a second opinion, and Koral was diagnosed with a rare liver disease called Biliary Atresia. A disease in which the child is born with little or no bile ducts, causing the liver not to drain bile properly. This disease can be detected by a Total Biliary Rubin test, that unfortunately, most parents aren’t aware of, and at the time, was not a mandatory test for jaundiced babies.

Koral immediately underwent a Kasai surgery, in which the small intestines are attached to the liver, in an effort to help the liver drain the excess bile. Unfortunately, little Korals tiny liver had suffered too much damage and she was in desperate need of a new one.

Her parents, Keri and Darrin, remember watching their tiny baby get worse and worse, as they felt helpless, wondering if she would ever get her much needed liver transplant. Miraculously,
on February 5th, 2009, Koral received that gift, and it came right from her own mother. Both Koral and her mommy pulled through surgery and within a day Koral’s yellow colouring started to disappear, and by weeks end, she was able to sit up and play and was her glowing, energetic little self.

Koral will need the assistance of several medications, for the rest of her life, and requires monthly blood tests and monitoring. She may end up needing yet another liver transplant, and because of her meds, may eventually need a kidney transplant, as well. But despite all of this, her parents are optimistic about the bright and shining future of their little star, and according to her mom, “She is an angel and a blessing to us every day, and we don’t take a day for granted! I may have given her part of my liver, but she gave me all of her heart and all her trust for her to grow from a Tiny Light to a glowing star.”