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Donor Is A Match For Savannah

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2008

RIVERVIEW - They were just four words. But when friends and family read them in an e-mail, they spoke volumes.

"We got The Call!"

Those words, sent at 1:17 a.m. Dec. 29, sent a chill down the spine of all who received Robert and Ana Anselmo's message. They were the answer to a community's prayers.

"The Call" was from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The Riverview couple learned that a liver match was found for their baby daughter, Savannah.

For Ana Anselmo, it was nothing short of the miracle she had asked for 10 days earlier.

Facing another restless night worrying about her baby at the Ronald McDonald House in Camden, N.J., near the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Anselmo decided to write a letter to Santa on behalf of her daughter Dec. 19.

"I'd never written to Santa before, but at this point, I thought I'd try," she said. "Why not? 'Tis the season for Christmas miracles, right?"

Anselmo told Santa he would undoubtedly find her daughter, who turned a year old Dec. 5, on the "nice kids" list because she "has never been naughty a day in her life. She has brought us so much joy this year. She was the perfect Christmas present."

Savannah is among the one in 15,000 babies born in the United States with biliary atresia. The disease causes inflammation and obstruction of the bile ducts, eventually causing liver failure.

Savannah's only hope of survival was a liver transplant. With time running out, the Anselmos were in Philadelphia waiting for an organ match.

Savannah's physical condition had deteriorated during the past month. Fluid had gathered around her liver and spleen, causing her stomach to swell. As a result, she was having trouble breathing and pulling herself up in the playpen.

The Anselmos learned their only child was critically ill at the age of 4 months. The tone of Ana Anselmo's journal showed the stress was taking its toll.

"We continue to wait for The Call," Anselmo wrote in her journal Dec. 27. "Not one minute goes by that we are not thinking about The Call. How can we stop focusing on the fact that this phone call is the only thing that can save our daughter's life?"

When "The Call" did come, from Elizabeth Rand, director of the hospital's liver transplant program, Ana Anselmo said she regretted that another child had to die so Savannah could live. The Anselmos originally tried to find a live tissue donation.

Because the liver regenerates, a portion of one can be harvested from a living person and transplanted into another. However, after testing eligible relatives, the Anselmos were unable to find a match for Savannah.

"We will be praying for the family of the child who made this miracle possible," said Ana Anselmo's brother, Ozzie Peraza. "Our hearts go out for their loss."

Since the transplant - which was done the same day the Anselmos got word of the match - Savannah has lived up to the nickname her parents have given her, "Warrior Princess."

"Her doctors feel that she is doing really well," Ana Anselmo said, adding that the family may get to move her to a sanitary room at the Ronald McDonald House this week.

It probably will be two months before the couple can return home with their daughter.

"We are so thankful to our transplant team to have given us our little girl's future," Ana Anselmo said. "We are elated that she is doing so well post-surgery. We may both be exhausted, but that's minor compared to the happiness we feel when we look at Savvy and see her healthy and pink. We are so very blessed. We have our baby back."

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

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