Sarah Love was a little taken aback when a stranger approached her and made an unusual comment about her newborn son’s skin color.
But she saved little Lincoln, revealing that her son had a silent health problem and potentially only had weeks to live.
Mrs. Love was enjoying a family trip to SeaWorld in Florida with six-week-old Lincoln when a man approached them and commented on the boy’s “yellow” complexion.
While she initially thought the comment was strange, the man put her at ease by explaining his experience as a firefighter and paramedic.
He said he didn’t think it was “anything scary or anything to worry about,” but urged her to get it checked out.
A series of tests and blood tests revealed that Lincoln had biliary atresia, a childhood liver disease that blocks the bile ducts.
It was causing his body to become jaundiced because it prevents bile from flowing out of the liver and causes a buildup of bilirubin in the blood, which manifests as yellowing of the skin and eyes.
Sarah Love and her husband Micah were enjoying a day trip to SeaWorld in Florida in July when a stranger discovered their baby had symptoms of a rare genetic condition.
Lincoln underwent two surgeries, which left him in the hospital for more than a month, and then the boy was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition known as Alagille syndrome.
The condition, which occurs in 1 in every 12,000 babies born in the U.S., can lead to liver damage and liver cirrhosis, which is fatal if untreated.
Without treatment, most children with biliary atresia die by the age of 19 months. In very rare cases, if there are serious complications, it can cause sudden death.
Lincoln underwent two surgeries, which kept him at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando for more than a month, and then the boy was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition known as Alagille syndrome, which scars and damages the liver.
The liver of a child with Alagille syndrome – which is estimated to affect one in every 70,000 newborns – has less bile ducts smaller than normal, causing bile to build up.
Symptoms may include yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), itching, dark urine, lumps under the surface of the skin, and an enlarged spleen.
It can also affect the kidneys by causing possible kidney failure, the heart due to narrowing of the blood vessel that connects the heart to the lungs (pulmonary stenosis) and the bones by sometimes presenting abnormally shaped spinal bones.
((Referring to the syndrome)) Mrs. Love, 35, told the local news station. WESH: ‘It can affect the kidneys. It can affect the heart.
‘It can affect the skeletal system, eyes and hearing. “A lot of things we were noticing might not have been addressed.”
Mrs. Love said that since Lincoln was born he had had jaundice and that they had noticed some “other things,” but his initial pediatrician didn’t notice anything.
Dr. Roberto Gómez, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Nemours who helped diagnose Lincoln, says that although Alagille syndrome is usually diagnosed shortly after birth, symptoms can appear at any age.
One study showed that the 20-year life expectancy of patients with Alagille syndrome is 75 percent.
The 20-year life expectancy was higher (80 percent) for patients who did not require a liver transplant and lower (60 percent) for patients who did.
Along with jaundice, other symptoms may include sunken eyes, poor weight gain, bone weakness, developmental delays, and itchy skin.
This is due to the reduced flow of bile out of the liver and the side effects this can cause.
Mrs Love is now praising the stranger she met at SeaWorld for helping save her son’s life.
The Loves did not take the man’s name at the time, and launched an appeal via local news for him to come forward so they could meet and thank him.
The liver of a child with Alagille syndrome has fewer small bile ducts than normal, which causes bile to build up, which in turn scars and damages the liver.
Mrs Love, whose five oldest children were born healthy, says she is very grateful to the stranger she met and to the wider medical team who helped Lincoln regain his health.
While Lincoln is now back home and in stable condition, Ms. Love says there areThere is a chance that one day you will need a new liver.
You will also require a nutritionist throughout your life to help treat vitamin deficiencies, as well as various medications.
One study found that the average age of children with Alagille syndrome at the time of transplant was seven years and ten months.
Mrs Love, whose five oldest children were born healthy, says she is very grateful to the stranger she met and to the wider medical team who helped Lincoln regain his health.
She said: “I absolutely believe it was our heavenly father who put the right people in the right place at the right time.”
‘I think it was a lot of courage on his part. I’m sure there were some doubts or feelings of insecurity on his part about whether he should speak.’
Mrs. Love hopes her family’s story will help raise awareness about Alagille syndrome.