Positivity: 3 Year-Old Gets Heart and Liver Transplant

Jessica Nichols is surviving a one-in-a-million disease (HT Good News Blog):
North Texas Girl Survives ‘Miracle’ Transplant

3-Year-Old Finds Heart And Liver Transplant
September 7, 2006FORT WORTH Jessica Nichols is a little girl with a big smile — and some big problems.

She was diagnosed with a one-in-a-million disease.

Her liver couldn’t process cholesterol and her cholesterol level soared to 1,000, nearly 10 times normal levels.

“There was no cure for it, only treatments,” explains Roy Nichols, Jessica’s father.

“We were looking at a five-year life span.”

Medical personnel said the girl’s arteries were clogging and at 3 years old, her time was running out.

“Eventually it was either going to cause her a heart attack or a stroke. And the heart won. It was the heart,” her father recalls.

When she was 3, Jessica suffered a near-fatal heart attack.

The girl needed a miracle — a heart and liver transplant. She was placed on a donors’ list and her parents told it could be a long a wait.

Roy Nichols says 48 hours later they got the miracle.

“Sunday at six o’clock I looked at the beeper and I just said to myself, ‘why don’t you just go off?’ And, the beeper went off. So it kind of freaked us all out,” he recalls.

Doctors found an organ donor for Jessica and she survived the transplant.

“I have no words to explain it. It’s just unreal. You can’t explain the joy, the relief … How your faith all of a sudden just gets even bigger than it was before,” Ray Nichols muses.